Method and system for visualizing and analyzing spectrum assets

• US 8,332,264 B1
• Filed: 10/22/2008
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Broyles, Daniel Stewart, Panella, Anthony A., Machamer, Douglas L., Rowland, Nichole D., Iverson, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US12/256,313
• Time in Patent Office: 1,511 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

A method and system are provided for visualizing and analyzing spectrum assets. License, channel, and lease data from a communications authority is collected and formatted into individual polygon maps. The maps could be drawn according to county or state boundaries, or by some other mapping standard. The maps are then divided and redrawn into several market service areas and several basic trading areas. The maps are also divided and redrawn according to the bandwidth spectrum of one or more channels. Since the maps are drawn with several different boundary conditions, the layout of all of the maps result in some maps being partially overlaid onto other maps for the same region. These regions containing partially overlaid maps are redefined as superblocks. Each superblock contains all of the data from each overlaid map portion for that particular region. These superblocks provide a means of displaying or representing a completely mapped region, such as the continental United States in a completely non-overlapping manner. Several methods analyze the newly formed non-overlapping data map for purposes of deriving current assets and forming future marketing strategies.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of analyzing spectrum assets using processor, memory, and data storage units, the computer-implemented method comprising:

collecting data from a communications authority via the data storage unit, said data pertaining to license, channel, and lease communications information for a mapped area;

filtering said data via the processor unit, said filtering comprising removing unwanted data or adding information to be considered;

dividing said mapped area into a plurality of market service areas and dividing said mapped area into a plurality of basic trading areas via the processor unit, wherein some of said market service areas overlap others of said market service areas, some of said basic trading areas may overlap others of said basic trading areas, and some of said market service areas overlap some of said basic trading areas;

separately dividing said mapped area into territories, said territories each comprising spectrum of one or more channels from the collected data, wherein some of said territories overlap others of said territories;

separately dividing said mapped area into one or more polygons for each specific license that is covered by each respective mapped area;

separately dividing said mapped area into one or more polygons for each specific lease that is covered by each respective mapped area;

locating all of said market service areas and all of said basic trading areas and all of said territories and all of said polygons which comprise a region overlapped by one or more other of said market service areas or other of said basic trading areas or other of said territories or other of said polygons to form a superblock boundary region for each of the overlapped regions; and

identifying all of said data within each of said superblock boundary regions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying a particular controlling entity or a particular control type for each channel within each of said territories.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a maximum contiguous coverage for a band of channels within each of said territories.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a total spectrum depth for said one or more channels.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

correlating a population density to said spectrum depth.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said superblock boundary regions contains said data for all of said channels contained within each overlapped region of the respective superblock boundary regions.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said data comprises spectrum communications data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said spectrum assets are related to a wireless communications industry.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said method is utilized for height benchmarking.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said height benchmarking comprises forming an adequate buffer around an existing spectrum market so as to avoid interference with a nearby spectrum neighbor.

11. A computer-implemented system having processor, memory, and data storage units for analyzing spectrum assets, the computer-implemented system comprising:

processor units, computer-readable memory units, data storage units and instructions for analyzing spectrum assets, the instructions when executed by the processor units perform he steps of;

dividing a mapped area into a plurality of metropolitan market service areas;

aggregating a plurality of basic trading areas by one or more county regions and a plurality territories, wherein each of said plurality of territories comprises a spectrum of one or more channels;

storing in said data storage unit communications data pertaining to license, channel, and lease communications information for the mapped area; and

forming a plurality of data superblocks where each superblock is based on an overlapped area occupied by a common intersection of at least one of said territories overlapped with at least one of the metropolitan market service areas or at least one of the basic trading areas, wherein each of said plurality of data superblocks comprises said communications data for all of said channels contained within each respective overlapped area; and

representing a two-dimensional cumulative view of all data within each respective overlapped area.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a controlling entity specification or a control type specification for each channel within each of said territories.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a maximum contiguous coverage determination for a band of channels within each of said territories.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a total spectrum depth determination for said one or more channels.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a correlating calculation between a population density and said spectrum depth.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said system comprises a buffer around an existing market of a specified spectrum depth to block interference with a nearby spectrum neighbor.

17. A computer-implemented method of determining a marketable spectrum region using processor, memory, and data storage units, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a plurality of channels;

determining for each of said plurality of channels a respective controlling entity, and a respective control type via the processor unit;

combining a spectrum depth for each of said plurality of channels, the spectrum depth comprising a controlling entity and a sale or lease control term for each of said plurality of channels;

forming a data superblock via the processor, wherein said forming a data superblock comprises;

dividing a mapped area into a plurality of market service areas and a plurality of basic trading areas, wherein some of said market service areas overlap others of said market service areas, and wherein some of said basic trading areas may overlap others of said basic trading areas, and wherein some of said market service areas overlap some of said basic trading areas;

separately dividing said mapped area into territories, said territories each comprising a spectrum of said plurality of channels, wherein some of said territories may overlap others of said territories;

locating all of said market service areas and all of said basic trading areas and all of said territories which comprise a region overlapped by one or more other of said market service areas or other of said basic trading areas or other of said territories;

forming an individual polygon boundary around each overlapped region; and

identifying all of said data within each individual polygon boundary for all of said polygon boundaries; and

multiplying a population factor to said spectrum depth combination via the processor unit.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a maximum contiguous coverage for a band of channels within each of said territories.