Patent ID: 8583157

Claim:
A spectrum management system for radio systems, comprising: an interface to communicate with the radio systems over a network; and a processor that executes a spectrum allocation function that is stored in a memory and, by execution of the spectrum allocation function, the spectrum management system is configured to: provide an original spectrum certificate to a secondary radio system, the original spectrum certificate defining spectrum that is available for use by the secondary radio system for wireless communications; receive data indicating that a priority radio system having spectrum use rights that dominate spectrum use rights of the secondary radio system has a need for spectrum; determine that the ability of the secondary radio system to use some of the spectrum defined by the original spectrum certificate is impacted by the priority radio system due to location of the secondary radio system and potential contention with operation of the priority radio system; modify the original spectrum certificate to specify one of alternative spectrum or revoke a portion of the spectrum defined by the original spectrum certificate, the modification to the original spectrum certificate being a change in the spectrum certificate that permits continued operation under the spectrum certificate by the secondary radio system; communicate with the impacted secondary radio system to free spectrum from the impacted secondary radio system for use by the priority radio system, wherein the communication is transmission of the modified spectrum certificate to the impacted secondary radio system; and determine if an acknowledgement is received from the secondary radio system in response to the modified spectrum certificate within a predetermined amount of time from transmission of the modified spectrum certificate and, if not, take action to preclude overlapping spectrum use by the priority radio system and the secondary radio system.