Patent ID: 8831519

Claim:
A method, comprising; sending a message from a first cognitive radio apparatus to at least one second cognitive radio apparatus during a negotiation phase to determine a channel to be used for sending data from the first cognitive radio apparatus to the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus, the message being sent over a first communication channel and comprising an advertisement of at least one second communication channel for use in sending the data from the first cognitive radio apparatus to the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus, the advertisement comprising a corresponding proposition/evaluation bit for each of the at least one second communication channel; receiving a reply from the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus over the first communication channel, the reply comprising one of an acceptance of one of the at least one second communication channels with the corresponding proposition/evaluation bit from the advertisement, a rejection of the at least one second communication channel and an advertisement of at least one third communication channel, and a rejection of the at least one second communication channel without an advertisement of at least one third communication channel; and transmitting the data from the first cognitive radio apparatus to the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus over an agreed upon one of the second or third channels in response to a completion of the negotiation phase, where the first communication channel is a common channel in an ISM frequency band that is used by cognitive radio apparatus and by non-cognitive radio apparatus.