Patent ID: 8577330

Claim:
In a communications system including one or more cells of a cellular network and a central processing repository communicatively coupled to the one or more cells, a method for the central processing repository to determine data requirements for cellular phone use within the one or more cells, the method comprising: receiving from at least one cell of a cellular network user information identifying a cellular phone user within the at least one cell; accessing at the central processing repository usage profile information that specifies historical data usage within the at least one cell for a given location and time including an amount of data used within the at least one cell for the given location and time; determining, based on the usage profile information, a current mode of operation for the cellular phone user and a probability that the current mode of operation will change, the current mode of operation specifying an expected amount of data usage of the cellular phone user; and providing the current mode of operation and probability that the current mode of operation will change to a cell tower of the at least one cell, the cell tower being configured to use the current mode of operation and the probability to determine current and predicted future bandwidth needs of the user while in the at least one cell for managing a bandwidth of the at least one cell.