Intelligent air-interface congestion manager

1. A method for conserving bandwidth in a radio access network, the method comprising:

determining that a first base station's allocated spectrum usage exceeds a congestion threshold, wherein the congestion threshold is set as a percentage of allocated spectrum, and wherein exceeding the congestion threshold indicates at least one coverage area associated with the first base station is congested;

determining that a second base station's allocated spectrum usage is below the congestion threshold, wherein such determination indicates at least one coverage area associated with the second base station is not congested;

in response to making the determinations a network-based device initiates, building an ad-hoc wireless-device relay comprising a plurality of wireless devices within the first base station's coverage area or the second base station's coverage area; and

relaying data from a mobile device located within the first base station's coverage area to the second base station via the ad-hoc wireless-device relay.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises selecting, using a selection algorithm that considers several device characteristics, the plurality of wireless devices from a larger plurality of active wireless devices located within the first base station's coverage area or the second base station's coverage area.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the device characteristics comprise a usage history associated with a device, and wherein the selection algorithm increases a device's probability of selection when the usage history indicates lower than a threshold amount of usage.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the device characteristics comprise a device's location, and wherein the plurality of wireless devices are selected to be less than a designated geographic distance between devices.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the device characteristics comprise a signal-to-noise ratio, and wherein the selection algorithm increases a devices probability of selection when a device's signal-to-noise ratio is lower than a threshold ratio.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said relaying occurs over a wireless frequency assigned to the second base station.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said data is of a type assigned to a best-effort quality of service.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computing device perform a method of conserving wireless spectrum allocated to a first base station by routing communication sessions over an ad-hoc wireless-device relay to a second base station, the method comprising:

determining, by running a band pass filter, that a first base station's allocated spectrum usage exceeds a congestion threshold wherein the congestion threshold is set as a percentage of allocated spectrum, and wherein exceeding the congestion threshold indicates at least one coverage area associated with the first base station is congested;

determining locations for active devices within the first base station's coverage area or the second base station's coverage area by accessing a location database that records mobile device locations;

in response to making the determinations a network-based device initiates, building an ad-hoc wireless-device relay comprising a plurality of wireless devices located within the first base station's coverage area or the second base station's coverage area, wherein the plurality of wireless devices are selected based on being less than a threshold distance from each other;

identifying an ongoing communication session having a best-effort level of service, the ongoing communication session occurring between a first device and the first base station; and

transferring the ongoing communication session from the first base station to the second base station via the ad-hoc wireless-device relay.

9. The media of claim 8 , wherein the threshold distance is selected to consume less than a designated amount of power to relay data to another device in the ad-hoc wireless-device relay.

10. The media of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining that one device within the ad-hoc wireless-device relay is beginning a separate communication session; and

building a new ad-hoc device relay that does not include the one device.

11. The media of claim 10 , wherein building the new ad-hoc device relay comprises adding one or more additional devices to replace the one device.

12. The media of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of wireless devices are selected, in part, based on battery-charge level.

13. The media of claim 8 , wherein the first base station's coverage area is adjacent to the second base station's coverage area.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodiment thereon that when executed by a computing device perform a method of reducing bandwidth usage within a first base station's coverage area by routing communications to a second base station over an ad-hoc wireless-device relay, the method comprising:

detecting that the first base station's allocated spectrum usage exceeds a congestion threshold, wherein the congestion threshold is set as a percentage of allocated spectrum, and wherein exceeding the congestion threshold indicates at least one coverage area associated with the first base station is congested;

selecting a plurality of wireless devices to use to form an ad-hoc wireless-device relay by analyzing characteristics of a plurality of devices;

in response to the detecting and selecting a network-based device initiates, building the ad-hoc wireless-device relay using devices from the plurality of devices, the devices being selected to keep power used by devices in the relay below a threshold consumption; and

communicating data from a device in the first base station's coverage area to the second base station using the relay.

15. The media of claim 14 , wherein the characteristics comprise historical usage patterns for a device, and wherein devices with a history of comparatively less use are favored for inclusion in the relay.

16. The media of claim 14 , wherein the characteristics comprise current movement indications, and wherein devices that are moving are excluded from inclusion in the relay.

17. The media of claim 14 , wherein the characteristics comprise movement history, and wherein devices that move infrequently are favored for inclusion within the relay.

18. The media of claim 14 , wherein the characteristics comprise current battery charge for a device, and wherein devices with lower than a threshold charge are excluded from selection for the relay.

19. The media of claim 14 , wherein the characteristics comprise power source for a device, and wherein devices with a nonbattery power source are favored over battery-powered devices for inclusion in the relay.

20. The media of claim 14 , wherein the method comprises communicating an activation message to each of the devices in the relay, the activation message providing information that allows devices to identify the data and relay the data to the subsequent device with an appropriate amount of signal strength for a distance between an adjacent device in the relay.