Wireless communication device capable of utilizing additional bandwidth

摘要

A wireless communication device is disclosed that is capable of utilizing bandwidth outside of its allocated bandwidth in order to maximize frequency coverage. The allocated band is separate from a neighboring band by a guard band. The device performs a scan of the neighboring band in order to determine an activity level within the neighboring band. Based on the determined activity level, the device expands its communication frequency range to include the guard band and/or the neighboring band. Once expanded, the device periodically rescans the neighboring band in order to determine whether the device must contract its frequency band out of the expanded area. The device can also receive activity level information of the neighboring band from a server via a common network infrastructure, and can coordinate expansion with other devices.

主权项

1. A wireless communication device that is configurable to communicate using a first band allocation, the first band allocation being characterized as being a neighbor of a second band allocation that is different from the first and the second band allocations having a guard band there between, the wireless communication device comprising:
a processing module configured to determine an activity level within at least a portion of the second band allocation and to expand the first band allocation to include at least a portion of the guard band to form a first band plus guard band allocation when the at least the portion of the second band allocation is not utilized, the first band allocation and the second band allocation being defined and allocate by a governing authority to communicate pursuant to a first protocol definition and a second protocol definition, respectively; and an adaptable transmitter and receiver module configured to communicate using the first band plus guard band allocation.