Estimating Urban Road Traffic States Using Mobile Network Signaling Data
English
Derrmann, Thierry[University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > >]
Frank, Raphaël[University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > >]
Viti, Francesco[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC) > Engineering Research Unit >]
Engel, Thomas[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC) > Computer Science and Communications Research Unit (CSC) >]
IEEE 20th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems
from 16-10-2017 to 19-10-2017
[en] It is intuitive that there is a causal relationship between human mobility and signaling events in mobile phone networks. Among these events, not only the initiation of calls and data sessions can be used in analyses, but also handovers between different locations that reflect mobility. In this work, we investigate if handovers can be used as a proxy metric for flows in the underlying road network, especially in urban environments. More precisely, we show that characteristic profiles of handovers
within and between clusters of mobile network cells exist. We base these profiles on models from road traffic flow theory, and show that they can be used for traffic state estimation using floating-car data as ground truth. The presented model can be beneficial in areas with good mobile network coverage but low road traffic counting infrastructure, e.g. in developing countries, but also serve as an additional predictor for existing traffic state monitoring systems.