WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS APPROACH USING BACKGROUND MONITORING

A wireless communications approach includes background monitoring to identify incumbent users and to characterize communications channels. One or more communications channels are used for wireless communications and are monitored separately and concurrently with the communications on the one or more communications channels. The background monitoring may identify communications channels that have incumbent users or do not have acceptable performance and therefore are not to be used for communications. The background monitoring may also pre-qualify communications channels that do not have incumbent users and have acceptable performance. When a determination is made that a particular communications channel is no longer to be used for communications, for example, because an incumbent user has been detected on the particular communications channel or because the performance of the particular communications channel is no longer acceptable, then the particular communications channel is replaced by a replacement communications channel identified via the background monitoring.