Spectrum yield management in a wireless communication system

In a wireless communication system that supports wireless communications throughout a service coverage area for a plurality of subscribers, a method for operating the wireless communication system comprising:

• segregating the service coverage area into a plurality of corridors, wherein each of the plurality of corridors includes a plurality of cells/sectors that have similar loading patterns and that form a contiguous portion of the service coverage area;
• determining subscriber load within at least some of the plurality of corridors;
• determining a loading threshold within at least some of the plurality of corridors;
• for a corridor in which subscriber load is determined, determining whether a respective subscriber load compares unfavorably to a respective loading threshold;
• if the respective subscriber load compares favorable to the respective loading threshold, delivering at least one short message to subscriber units operating within the corridor.

In a wireless communication system that supports wireless communications throughout a service coverage area for a plurality of subscribers, a method for operating the wireless communication system comprising:

• segregating the plurality of subscribers into a plurality of classes;
• segregating the service coverage area into a plurality of corridors, wherein each of the plurality of corridors includes a plurality of cells/sectors that have similar loading patterns and that form a contiguous portion of the service coverage area;
• determining subscriber load for a corridor of the plurality of corridors;
• determining a loading threshold for the corridor;
• when the subscriber load compares unfavorably to the loading threshold in the corridor, altering subscriber accessibility to the wireless communication system in the corridor for subscribers of a class of the plurality of classes.

A spectrum yield management system for use in conjunction with a wireless communication system that supports wireless communications throughout a service coverage area for a plurality of subscribers, the spectrum management yield system comprising:

• a data receiving interface that receives subscriber load information for at least some of a plurality of corridors defined within the service coverage areas, wherein each of the plurality of corridors includes a plurality of cells/sectors that have similar loading patterns and that form a contiguous portion of the service coverage area;
• a system operator interface that receives operating goals for the plurality of corridors;
• a computing device that couples to the data receiving interface and the system operator interface, that determines loading thresholds within at least some of the plurality of corridors based upon the operating goals, and that determines whether a respective subscriber load compares unfavorably to a respective loading threshold;
• and
• an output interface coupled to the computing device that, if the respective subscriber load compares unfavorably to the respective loading threshold in the corridor, causes subscriber accessibility in the corridor to be altered.

A spectrum yield management system for use in conjunction with a wireless communication system that supports wireless communications throughout a service coverage area for a plurality of subscribers, the spectrum management yield system comprising:

• a data receiving interface that receives subscriber load information;
• a system operator interface that receives operating goals for a plurality of classes operating in the wireless communication system, where each of the plurality of subscribers is a member of at least one of the plurality of classes;
• a computing device that couples to the data receiving interface and the system operator interface, that determines a loading threshold based upon the operating goals, and that determines whether the subscriber load compares unfavorably to the loading threshold;
• and
• an output interface coupled to the computing device that, if the respective subscriber load compares unfavorably to the respective loading threshold, causes subscriber accessibility to be altered for a class.