Measuring vehicular traffic density using mobile phone signaling data

Abstract

By necessity, every mobile phone must be associated with a base station or switching location in order for mobile phone networks to work. Done as part of the process known as signaling, this property inadvertently localizes the phone to a geographical area. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using signaling data to measure vehicular traffic density. By using simulations, we have shown that it is indeed possible under some assumptions and limits. It is envisioned that the developed technique would allow mass-scale traffic monitoring using existing mobile infrastructures and verify models of complex agent-based diffusion and interaction.