Patent ID: 8391217

Claim:
A synchronous spectrum sharing system, the system comprising: a base transceiver station (BTS) configured to provide wireless broadband access to a plurality of primary nodes; a private network comprising a plurality of secondary nodes that are configured to communicate with each other through a dedicated network subchannel associated with a broadcast frame configured to be transmitted by the BTS, the secondary nodes comprising a subset of the primary nodes, each secondary node comprising: a frame detector configured to extract idle spectrum information for the dedicated network subchannel from a subframe within the broadcast frame, the dedicated network subchannel comprising a portion of the broadcast frame that is reserved for use by the secondary nodes, wherein a first of the secondary nodes is configured to transmit data in a first unused symbol slot identified in the idle spectrum information directly to a second of the secondary nodes, the transmitted data not being re-transmitted through another communication device, and wherein the primary nodes are inhibited from communicating with the secondary nodes through the dedicated network subchannel.