Patent ID: 8041627

Claim:
A method of managing pool of spectrum for which wireless communications use rights in the spectrum are temporarily transferable from respective spectrum holders to spectrum users, comprising: receiving over time, with an automated spectrum exchange server and from each of plural spectrum holders, a data set identifying unused or underutilized spectrum of the respective spectrum holder in a respective geographic region, the spectrum holders from which the data sets are received changing over time such that frequencies of spectrum in the pool change over time, a spectrum holder being a party that has authority to release use of the spectrum identified in the data set to another entity; and with the automated spectrum exchange server, forming a spectrum commodity item for each received data set to electronically describe spectrum identified in the data set, each spectrum commodity item describing respective spectrum in a predetermined and consistent format regardless of frequency and regulatory rules for using the spectrum for wireless communications, each spectrum commodity item including a time window, a frequency-based spectral mask, a geography-based emission mask and a transmitted power limit that correspond to available spectrum; and wherein the spectrum commodity items collectively form the pool of available spectrum for a dynamically changing group of spectrum users having diverse spectrum needs, the pool dynamically changing over time as the data sets are received over time and as spectrum corresponding to the spectrum commodity items is no longer available for use by the spectrum users and as spectrum corresponding to the spectrum commodity items are allocated for use by the spectrum users.