Patent ID: 8537851

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for requesting access to a spectrum band, comprising: sensing, by a mobile device, an ambient power level for a portion of an electromagnetic spectrum over which the mobile device communicates wirelessly; determining, by the mobile device, and based on the sensed ambient power level, an amount of power required for performance of a communication operation within a total permissible power cap during a unit of time; generating, by the mobile device, a bid for an auction of an access allocation, the bid including data indicating the sensed ambient power level; transmitting, by the mobile device, the bid to a spectrum access manager that receives bids that include data indicating sensed ambient power levels from mobile devices, and that organizes received bids into at least two different subsets according to respectively sensed ambient power levels included in the received bids, and, for each subset of the received bids: auctions access allocation according to the received bids that belong to that subset of received bids, the access allocation being an allocation of access to an auctioned portion of the electromagnetic spectrum; and receiving, by the mobile device, from the spectrum access manager, and in response to the spectrum access manager conducting an auction, a determination of an authorization to transmit data over the access allocation.