US Patent 10070444 Coordinated spectrum allocation and de-allocation to minimize spectrum fragmentation in a cognitive radio network

An apparatus and a method are described, by which a fragmentation probability is determined which indicates a probability of fragmentation of frequency resources in at least one network section for at least one network operating entity. Moreover, an apparatus and a method are described, by which frequency resources in at least one network section are allocated and/or de-allocated, priorities of frequency resources are defined for at least one network operating entity individually, and allocating and/or de-allocating of the frequency resources for the at least one network operating entity is performed based on the priorities. For allocating and/or de-allocating of the frequency resources, also the fragmentation probability may be taken into account.