Patent ID: 7050812

Claim:
A method for associating frequencies with sectors in a cellular network, the method comprising: receiving requests for associating the frequencies with each of the sectors in the cellular network, each request specifying a requested number of frequencies to be associated with a sector, providing frequency selection criteria, providing sector selection criteria, the sector selection criteria including a threshold representing a minimum fraction of a request that must be fulfilled, based on the sector selection criteria and the frequency selection criteria, associating the frequencies with the sectors to fulfill the requests, determining whether all of the requests can be fulfilled based on the sector selection criteria and the frequency selection criteria, based on all of the requests not being fulfilled, modifying at least one of the requests to specify a different number of frequencies to be associated with at least one sector, the different number being less than the requested number but not less than the minimum fraction of the requested number, and iteratively returning to associating the frequencies with the sectors to fulfill the requests.