Patent ID: 8275388

Claim:
A method of controlling spectrum use comprising: performing a group coordinated process in a first wireless communications system which is configured to take part in a spectrum assignment process, in which process one of the first wireless communications system and a second wireless communications system assigns a portion of spectrum to the other of the first wireless communications system and the second wireless communications system, the first wireless communications system comprising a plurality of network elements, some or all of which are located within a cell associated with a particular network element of the second wireless communications system, the network elements of the first wireless communications system all operating within the same spectrum band when in use, said performing a group coordinated process comprising: by coordinating network elements of the first wireless communications system, identifying a portion of spectrum which is either available for assignment from the network elements of the first wireless communications system to the particular network element of the second wireless communications system, or required to be assigned from the particular network element of the second wireless communications system to the network elements of the first wireless communications system, in the spectrum assignment process; wherein coordinating the network elements of the first wireless communications system comprises: operating one of the network elements of the first wireless communications system to coordinate other network elements of the first wireless communications system; transmitting from the one network element of the first wireless communications system to the other network elements signaling which indicates the start of the group coordinated process, in response to receiving said signaling, analyzing at each of the other network elements its data currently awaiting transmission, determining an amount of bandwidth required for transmission of the data based on said analyzing, and transmitting to the one network element signaling being indicative of its required amount of bandwidth; at the one network element, receiving the signaling from each of the other network elements; analyzing the data currently awaiting transmission from the one network element of the first wireless communications system and determining an amount of bandwidth required for transmission of the data based on said analyzing; and comparing the amount of bandwidth required by each of the network elements with an amount of spectrum currently assigned to the first communications system, obtaining based on the comparison, a difference for each network element, and selecting the minimum difference.