Patent ID: 7958041

Claim:
A spectrum management system over which spectrum use rights are transferred from a spectrum holder to a spectrum user, comprising: a computer-implemented broker apparatus configured to match available spectrum with spectrum need; a spectrum holder apparatus configured to communicate available spectrum to the broker apparatus in terms of a time dimension, a geography dimension and a frequency dimension as a temporary release of spectrum use rights; and a wireless radio apparatus having a need for spectrum and configured to communicate the need for spectrum to the broker apparatus; wherein the broker apparatus includes: an expert system configured to: treat the available spectrum as one or more spectrum commodity items that each are expressed in terms of the time dimension, the geography dimension and the frequency dimension that combine to define an available spectrum fragment; and automatically match the need for spectrum with at least a portion of one of the spectrum commodity items; and a certificate generator configured to, from the matched portion of the spectrum commodity item, generate a spectrum certificate that defines a fragment of spectrum for wireless communications by the wireless radio apparatus in terms of the time dimension, the frequency dimension and the geography dimension, and to transmit the spectrum certificate to the wireless radio apparatus to complete temporary release of spectrum use rights from the spectrum holder apparatus to the wireless radio apparatus; and wherein the wireless radio apparatus includes a certificate agent configured to control wireless communications of the wireless radio apparatus in accordance with the spectrum fragment defined by the spectrum certificate.