Patent ID: 8879573

Claim:
A method, comprising: under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, monitoring, by a scanner radio of a network node, a control channel to identify spectrum reservations announced by additional network nodes in communication with each other; determining, by the network node, a utilization of a communication spectrum at each of the additional network nodes based on the monitoring of the control channel; aggregating, by the network node, the utilizations from at least some of the additional network nodes into an aggregated utilization of the communication spectrum; reserving, by the network node, a part of the communication spectrum for an exchange of information based on the aggregated utilization using the control channel, the control channel being an unfixed control channel having a lower transmission range than transmission ranges associated with the exchange of information; scanning, by the scanner radio of the network node, a particular portion of the communication spectrum to identify vacant portions of the communication spectrum for an exchange of packets with the particular additional network node; monitoring the control channel, by an additional radio of the network node, while the scanner radio is scanning the particular portion of the communication spectrum; and after the scanner identifies vacant portions of the communication spectrum for the exchange of packets with the particular additional network node, tuning the additional radio of the network node to the identified vacant portions of the communication spectrum to perform the exchange of packets with the particular additional network node.