Patent ID: 7424268

Claim:
A method for managing use of a radio frequency band in which wireless signals of multiple types may occur, comprising: monitoring radio frequency energy in a radio frequency band in which activity associated with a plurality of wireless signal types may occur to generate spectrum activity information representing activity in the frequency band; determining when there is a degradation of performance of a device operating in the radio frequency band; determining when the degradation of performance is caused by an interfering signal occurring in the frequency band based on the spectrum activity information; classifying the interfering signal based on the spectrum activity information to determine a signal type of the interfering signal if the signal type of the interfering signal is a known and otherwise to determine that the interfering signal is an unknown type; generating recommendation information to a user to avoid the degradation in performance of the device caused by the interfering signal, wherein generating the recommendation information comprises generating at least one recommended action that is presented to the user and wherein the recommended action depends on whether the interfering signal is a known signal type or is an unknown signal type determined by said classifying; wherein said device is operating in the frequency band on a wireless local area network (WLAN) and when said classifying determines that the interfering signal is a known signal type and is a signal associated with another WLAN operating on a channel that is adjacent to a channel of the WLAN on which said device is operating, said generating comprises generating a recommended action comprising one or more of: adjusting the location of said other WLAN, and adjusting a location of the access point for the WLAN on which said device operates.