Patent ID: 7512404

Claim:
A method for determining an assignment of wireless communications channels to a plurality of wireless communications transmitters, comprising: identifying a plurality of available wireless communications channels; determining a plurality of wireless communications channel assignments based upon the plurality of available wireless communications channels and the plurality of wireless communications transmitters, wherein each wireless communications channel assignment from the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments includes an assignment of one or more wireless communications channels of the plurality of available wireless communications channels to each wireless communications transmitter of the plurality of wireless communications transmitters; determining a channel separation for each wireless communications channel assignment of the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments; and based on the channel separation that is determined for said each wireless communications channel assignment of the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments, selecting from the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments, a particular wireless communications channel assignment that (a) provides less overall interference relative to other wireless communications channel assignments in the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments and (b) satisfies a channel separation criteria; wherein the overall interference for each wireless communications channel assignment considers the interference for each wireless communications channel assigned to each wireless communications transmitter of the plurality of wireless communications transmitters in said each wireless communications channel assignment; and wherein determining the channel separation for said each wireless communications channel assignment of the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments includes: determining S â¡ ( S _ k , i ) = min r = 1 â¢ â€¦ â¢ â¢ n â¢ | S _ k , i r - S _ k , i r + 1 â¢ â¢ mod â¢ â¢ n | , wherein: S k is a channel set that includes the plurality of wireless communications channels; S k,i defines a wireless communications channel assignment i for the channel set S k by specifying which wireless communications channels of the plurality of wireless communications channels are assigned to each wireless communications transmitter of the plurality of wireless communications transmitters for the wireless communications channel assignment i for the channel set S k ; 1<iâ‰¦I, in which I is a first number of wireless communications channel assignments in the plurality of wireless communications channel assignments; n is a second number of wireless communications transmitters in the plurality of wireless communications transmitters; and S( S k,i ) is a channel separation distance for the wireless communications channel assignment i defined by S k,i .