Patent ID: 8023899

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for selecting communications channels to be used by a communication system, the computer-implemented method comprising: for a particular communications channel being used by the communication system from a plurality of communications channels, determining a channel switch metric that indicates the presence of one or more signals on the particular communications channel that use a different communications protocol than a communications protocol used by the communication system; for one or more communications channels from the plurality of communications channels other than the particular communications channel: determining, for each of the one or more communications channels, a channel occupancy metric that indicates the presence of one or more signals on the communications channel that use the same communications protocol as the communications protocol used by the communication system or a different communications protocol, and a classification, by device type, of the one or more signals determined to be present on the communications channel that use a different communications protocol than the communications protocol used by the communication system; determining, based upon at least the channel switch metric and the channel occupancy metric and classification for each of the one or more communications channels, whether the communication system should use one or more alternative communications channels from the one or more communications channels instead of the particular communications channel; and if a determination is made that the communication system should use the one or more alternative communications channels from the one or more communications channels instead of the particular communications channel, then causing the communication system to use the one or more alternative communications channels.