Road Cell Report

ftw.
Technical Report
FTW-TR-2009-003
Printed March 17th, 2009
Road Traffic information from

Cellular Network Signaling
Danilo Valerio
ftw. Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

Donaucitystrasse 1, 1220 Vienna, AUSTRIA
Abstract
Abstract
In this report we address the problem of using cellular network signaling for inferring
real-time road traffic information. We survey and categorize the approaches that have
been proposed in the literature for a cellular-based road monitoring system and identify
advantages and limitations. We outline a unified framework that encompasses UMTS and
GPRS data collection in addition to GSM, and prospectively combines passive and active
monitoring techniques. We identify the main research challenges that must be faced in
designing and implementing such an intelligent road traffic estimation system via third-
generation cellular networks. Finally, by analyzing real UMTS signaling traces, we show
how collecting and processing mobility signaling from cellular networks can improve a
road traffic detection system and pave the way to an Intelligent Traffic Management.
This work has been supported by the Telecommunications Research Center Vienna (ftw.).
Ftw is supported by the Austrian Government and by the City of Vienna within the
competence center program COMET.
2 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

CONTENTS
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 UMTS basics 6
2.1 Architecture ................................................................................... 6
2.2 Protocol stack ................................................................................ 8
2.3 Location concepts............................................................................ 9
2.4 CN Mobility Management ................................................................. 11
2.4.1 Circuit Switched Mobility Management (MM) ............................. 12
2.4.2 Packet Switched Mobility Management (PMM)............................ 13
2.4.3 GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) ........................................ 13
3 Road monitoring via cellular systems 15
3.1 Active techniques ............................................................................ 16
3.2 Passive techniques ........................................................................... 17
4 Extended monitoring framework 19
4.1 Motivation ..................................................................................... 19
4.2 Architecture ................................................................................... 20
4.3 Event types.................................................................................... 21
4.3.1 Events from the Gb interface ................................................... 21
4.3.2 Events from the IuCS interface ................................................. 22
4.3.3 Events from the IuPS interface ................................................. 23
ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 1

CONTENTS
4.4 Geographical information .................................................................. 23
4.4.1 C# application ..................................................................... 23
4.4.2 TEMS files ........................................................................... 25
5 Preliminary results 26
5.1 Generic statistics............................................................................. 26
5.2 Opposite traffic flows ....................................................................... 28
5.3 Railways........................................................................................ 29
5.4 Why UMTS helps ........................................................................... 30
5.5 Accidents....................................................................................... 31
6 Research challenges and future works 33
6.1 Single out road users........................................................................ 33
6.2 Road condition estimation................................................................. 34
6.3 Smart integration of active and passive techniques ................................. 34
7 Privacy issues 36
8 Conclusions 38
A Related projects and commercial products 39
A.1 CAPITAL...................................................................................... 40
A.2 STRIP .......................................................................................... 41
A.3 OPTIS .......................................................................................... 42
A.4 Do-iT ........................................................................................... 43
A.5 Traffic.online .................................................................................. 44
A.6 Cellint Trafficsense .......................................................................... 45
A.7 Estimotion CFVDTM ........................................................................ 46
A.8 TomTom RoDIN24 .......................................................................... 47
References 48

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Introduction
Providing real-time road traffic information to road users has become the natural next
step in traffic telematic after the proliferation of navigation system equipments. The
knowledge of the user location only does not allow navigation equipments to estimate
journey durations and calculate the best routes by considering the current road traffic
conditions. In order to provide such a service to the road users, GPS technology needs to
be combined with other systems for the collection, the processing, and the distribution
of road status data to the end users. Currently, data collection is done by road operators
by using road sensors, cctvs, and emergency calls from road users (see Figure 1.1). Data
is then processed in traffic control centers and forwarded to third party entities for the
final dissemination to the road users via FM radio or other communication means. This
approach presents a cost hurdle: a complete coverage of the road network would not be
possible without the employment of new infrastructure.
Sensors
Broadcaster
Road Operator
Authorities
Traffic Control Center
CCTVs Variable signs
Figure 1.1: Typical system for road traffic data collection
Driven by the fact that each road user on a car is also a potential user of a cellular
network, it is natural to consider mobile operators as an alternative source of road traffic
information. The use of cellular networks for estimating patterns of human mobility
within a country has been subject of several studies in the past decade (e.g. [1]). Only
recently, the increased network coverage, the refinement of positioning methods, and a

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
full market penetration of cellular technologies led to the idea of using mobile networks to
monitor the road traffic. A feasible scheme would let cellular operators grab a potential
share of market by either selling this service to navigation system equipment vendors
and/or road operators, or providing this added value service to their customers.
Road user = Potential cellular users
Cellular users
Cellular
Road Operator
Traffic Control Center Road Operator
Nodes B
Sensors, GPS vendors
CCTV
Figure 1.2: Road traffic data collection from cellular systems
Informing the users about the real-time road traffic condition would inherently optimize
the traffic flows and reduce the congestion events. The ultimate advantage is twofold.
First, the environmental impact of a fluent traffic, in terms of emitted CO2 , is lower than
in a “stop-start” traffic pattern, i.e. congestion [2]. Second, the fuel consumption and the
time spent on cars would decrease, paving the way for a better quality of life.
In this work we make the following contribution. First, we present a survey of existing
approaches for inferring road traffic condition by using cellular network signaling. We
summarize and categorize research works presented in literature and cite the main activ-
ities that have been conducted by industries and public institutions. Second, we review
the existing approaches and identify the main problems and limitations in the light of
the ongoing evolution toward third and fourth generation cellular networks. Finally, we
propose a novel framework that extends the existing monitoring systems to UMTS and
GPRS data and combines passive and active monitoring techniques, highlighting the main
research challenges. We start to explore the collected data and show the high potentiality
of such a system in the context of road traffic management.
The remainder of this report is organized as follows: in chapter 2 we provide a short

introduction to the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). This is far
from being a comprehensive overview of the technology. We rather focus on some aspects
relevant for our work. In chapter 3 we categorize the existing approaches for road traffic
monitoring via cellular networks and describe their main advantages and limitations.

Several test-fields, simulations, and projects are cited and described in the context of
both data collection and data processing. Chapter 4 describes our framework and the
technical aspects in the development of a road monitoring system via cellular network.
In chapter 5 we present some statistics derived by the collected traces. In chapter 6 a
research agenda is presented and the main challenges are identified. Chapter 7 deals with
the privacy issues that could be arisen against such a system and shows how users’ privacy
is effectively protected. Finally, in chapter 8 the main conclusions are drawn.

CHAPTER 2. UMTS BASICS
Chapter 2
UMTS basics
Third Generation (3G) mobile systems have been widely deployed in the last few years.
While Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) is the most used 2G wireless
technology in the world, the need for larger bandwidth and higher flexibility and the trend
from simple voice services to more complex data services paved the way for the diffusion
of 3G systems. In Europe the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
technology is rapidly conquering the market. UMTS shares part of its infrastructure with
the GSM systems and lays its foundation on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
(W-CDMA).
The development of the standard is carried out by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) since 1998. The evolution of the UMTS system moves through so called releases.
Each release provides new services and features through hardware and/or software changes
in the network equipments. Release 3 (R3, also referred to as R99 in literature) was the
first release implemented in real networks. It includes a GSM core network combined with
a WCDMA-based radio access network. 3GPP R4 added some changes related to the
separation of user data flows and their control mechanisms. The first major upgrade for
3GPP systems has been proposed in Release 5 with the addition of the popular High Speed
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Finally,
3GPP R6 includes new features in the context of multimedia broadcasting (Multimedia
Broadcast/Multicast Service – MBMS), an enhanced Uplink Channel, and WLAN/UMTS
interworking.
2.1 Architecture
Implementing and deploying such a rapidly evolving standard requires the use of a modular
architecture. To this end UMTS lays its foundation on the concepts of strata and domains.
First, the whole system is divided into User Equipment (UE) domain and infrastructure
domain. The UE is made up of the UMTS Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) and
the Mobile Equipment (ME). On the other side, the infrastructure domain is divided in
Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network (CN). The CN is split into two more

2.1. ARCHITECTURE
domains, i.e. the Circuit Switched (CS) and the Packet Switched (PS) domains. Different
entities are connected with each other by means of “interfaces” (also called “reference
points”). This allows the upgrade of specific components without affecting the rest of
the network. From the protocol point of view, the network is divided into two strata.
The Access Stratum (AS) comprises all the protocols for handling the communication
between UE and RAN domain, while Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocols are used for
communications UE-CN (both PS and CS).
An overview of a UMTS network structure is presented in Figure 2.1 containing the

most important nodes and interfaces. The picture highlights again the clear separation
between RAN and CN. Starting from the bottom, the first entity is the UE. This can be a
combination of (U)SIM and 2G or 3G phone, handheld, PDA, laptop, etc. In case of a 2G
equipment, the radio connection is established towards the GSM/EDGE Radio Access
Network (GERAN). The user terminal communicates with a Base Transceiver Station
(BTS), which in turn is connected through the Abis interface to a Base Station Controller
(BSC). One BSC and all the BTS connected to it form a Base Station Subsystem (BSS). In
case of 3G UE, the radio connection can also be established toward the UMTS Terrestrial
Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UE communicates with one or more Nodes B,
which in turn are connected to a Radio Network Controller (RNC) via the Iub interface.
A group of Nodes B and the RNC to which they are connected form a Radio Network
Subsystem (RNS). Different RNSs can be connected with each other by means of the Iur
interface.
Both GERAN and UTRAN are connected to the CN, via A/Gb and IuCS/IuPS interfaces
respectively. On the left, the Mobile serving Switching Center and Visitor Location
GMSC GGSN
Gn Core Network
MSC/VLR SGSN
Gs
IuCS Gb/IuPS
A/IuCS IuPS
BSS RNS
BSC RNC RNC
Iur
Abis Iub Radio Access Network
BTS BTS Node B Node B
Figure 2.1: UMTS network overview

Register (MSC/VLR) is the switch (MSC) and the database (VLR) serving the terminal in
its current location for CS services. The Gateway MSC (GMSC) is the MSC connecting
the network to external CS networks. On the right, the Serving GPRS Support Node
(SGSN) is the counterpart of the MSC/VLR for the PS domain, while the Gateway
GPRS Support Node (GGSN) connects the network to external IP networks.
2.2 Protocol stack
Figure 2.2 depicts a simplified overview of the UMTS protocol stack. While the previous
section outlined the clear distinction between RAN and CN, from the protocols point
of view a distinction can be made between Access Stratum and Non-Access Stratum
protocols. The AS includes radio access protocols between the UE and the UTRAN. The
NAS includes CN protocols between the UE and the CN itself.
There are three protocol layers in the AS: physical layer (L1), data-link layer (L2), and
network layer (L3). The data-link layer can be further divided into several sublayers:
Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Broadcast/Multicast Control
(BMC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). The network layer also includes
several sublayers, but only the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol belongs to the AS.
The other sublayers within the network layer, i.e. Mobility Management (MM), GPRS
MM (GMM), Call Management (CM), and Session Management (SM) are part of the
NAS protocols.
Control plane User plane

CM SM
User plane
data protocol
Non-access MM GMM
stratum
L3
Access
RRC
stratum
BMC PDCP
RLC L2
MAC
3G PHYSICAL LAYER L1
Figure 2.2: UMTS protocol stack

2.3. LOCATION CONCEPTS
CM/SM
MM/GMM
RRC
RLC
MAC
PHY
UE Node B RNC SGSN GGSN

MSC GMSC
Figure 2.3: Third layer protocols
Besides AS and NAS distinction, one can also distinguish between two vertical planes:
the Control (C) and User (U) planes, for the signaling and the data respectively. The
C-plane carries control data information that is needed by the protocol tasks to run the
system. The U-plane, on the other hand, carries data that is generated by the user, or
by a user application. The U-plane data is typically digitally coded voice, but also other
forms of data. The MAC and RLC layers exist in both the C and U-planes. The RRC is
present only in the C-plane and the BMC and PDCP are only in the U-plane. RRC, MM,
and GMM get the most thorough treatment in this report, since they are strictly related
with the amount of mobility information present across the various network nodes. Each
protocol layer performs strictly defined functions, possibly exchanging information with
other layers via protocol interfaces.
Figure 2.3 shows the termination point of each protocol in the control plane from the UE
stack perspective. The RRC protocol is responsible for the establishment, maintenance,
and release of the radio connection between the UE and the RNC. The MM protocol trans-
ports authentication and mobility information between the UE and the SGSN. Finally,
the CM and the SM manage the call and session establishment procedures respectively for
the end-to-end connection. All these protocols keep a finite state machine in the involved
entities. Therefore, at any time a UE will have a RRC state, a MM state, and a SM state.
A thorough description of the physical, MAC, and RLC procedures is out of the scope of
this report. In the following sections we go into the details of the RRC and MM protocols.
2.3 Location concepts
Before going into the details of the mobility management in the cellular network, we depict
in Figure 2.4 the logical entities used for the localization in GSM and UMTS networks.
Though the terms “location” and “position” are often used as synonyms, throughout this

LA
RA
URA URA
Cell Cell
Cell Cell
RA
URA URA
Cell Cell
Cell Cell
Figure 2.4: Logical network structure
report we refer to:
• location as the location of the user terminal in the logical structure of the network,
and to
• position as the geographical position of the user terminal in terms of geographical

coordinates.
Therefore, the “location of a user” refers to its presence in one of the four logical entities
depicted in Figure 2.4.
The smallest location entity is the cell, which is the area covered by a sector of a node
B (or BTS in GSM). Cells are grouped in Routing Areas (RA) for the PS domain, and
Location Areas (LA) for the CS domain. A Location Area is uniquely identified by a
Location Area Identity (LAI). The LAI is composed of the following elements:
• Mobile Country Code (MCC) identifies the country in which the network is located,
• Mobile Network Code (MNC) is a code identifying the network in that country,
• Location Area Code (LAC) is a fixed length code (of 2 octets) identifying a location
area within a network.
RAs are usually smaller than LAs, i.e. a LA can include one or more RAs. A RA
is uniquely identified by a Routing Area Identity (RAI). The RAI is composed of the
following elements:

2.4. CN MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
RAI
LAI
MCC MNC LAC RAC CellID
CGI
Figure 2.5: Location identifiers
• LAI is defined above,
• Routing Area Code (RAC) is a fixed length code (of 1 octet) identifying a routing
area within a location area.
A RAI is therefore composed of MCC+MNC+LAC+RAC. A cell is uniquely identified

by a Cell Global Identity (CGI). The CGI is composed by:
• LAI is defined above,
• CellID is a fixed length code (of 2 octet) identifying a cell within a location area.
Thus, the CGI is composed of MCC+MNC+LAC+CellID.
The terminal informs the network about location changes by means of Location Area
Updates (LAU), Routing Area Updates (LAU), and Cell Updates. Such procedures are
part of the mobility management protocols, described in section 2.4. Finally, a RA is
further divided in UTRAN Routing Areas (URA). The URA is a new concept introduced
by UMTS. While in GSM the mobility is completely handled between UE and CN, in
UMTS the UTRAN is partially involved into the mobility management. For this reason,
the UTRAN has its own mobility entities.
2.4 CN Mobility Management
While the RRC manages the mobility at the UTRAN level (between UE and RNC), the
UE and the CN exchange mobility information by using the Mobility Management (MM)
protocol. We can distinguish between three different MM state machines, depending on
the type of domain to which the terminal is attached:
• CS MM (often simply abbreviated as MM) is the state machine used by UE

and MSC when using CS services.

• Packet MM (PMM) is the state machine used by UE and SGSN when using PS
services in GPRS Iu mode.
• GPRS MM (GMM) is the state machine used by UE and SGSN when using PS
services in GPRS A/Gb mode.
2.4.1 Circuit Switched Mobility Management (MM)
Figure 2.6 depicts the CS MM state machine. UE and MSC switch between the following
three states: MM detached, MM idle, and MM connected. When the UE is switched off,
MM
_Detached
IMSI attach or LA update
(terminal switched on)
IMSI detach
MM MM
_Idle _Connected
Call setup or LA update
Call completion
Figure 2.6: Circuit-Switched MM states
it is said to be in MM detached state. Clearly, the UE does not perform any action and
the network has no information on its location. When the terminal is switched on, it
camps onto a suitable cell and monitors its control channel. If the monitored Location
Area Identifier (LAI) is equal to the one stored in the USIM, the mobile performs an IMSI
attach. If not, it performs a Location Area Update (LAU) with IMSI attach. In both case
it transits from the MM detached state to the MM idle state through the MM connected
state. In MM idle state the UE needs to be reachable by the network. To allow the
network to route incoming phone calls, every time the UE moves from one cell to another,
it checks the LAI of the new cell. If the latter is different from the LAI of the old cell,
the UE informs the MSC of this change by sending a LAU message. The CN knows
the position of the UE with the accuracy of a LA1 . When the user makes a call, the
UE transits from MM idle state to MM connected state. In this state the UE sends Cell
Updates to the MSC whenever the monitored CellID changes, i.e. the CN has information
of the UE location on a cell level.
1
It is worthy to mention that in order to send a LAU, the UE needs to establish a RRC connection,
i.e. change temporarily RRC state. For this reason, at each LAU also the CellID (of the cell where the
LAU takes place) will be available

2.4. CN MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
2.4.2 Packet Switched Mobility Management (PMM)
The finite state diagram for PS services is depicted in Figure 2.7. Although the names
are similar to the CS counterpart, there are some important differences that need to
be pointed out. Clearly, transitions from one state to another are triggered by different
procedures. But also the location information available in each state is rather different. In
PMM
_Detached
PS detach
PS attach reject
PS detach PS attach RAU reject
PMM PMM
_Idle PS signalling _Connected
connection establish.
PS signaling
connection release
Figure 2.7: Packet-Switched MM states
PMM detached, as expected, there is no communication between the UE and the SGSN.
Therefore the SGSN does not hold valid routing information for the UE. In order to
establish a MM context, the UE shall perform a PS attach procedure, also called Packet
IMSI attach. In PMM idle state the CN knows the location of a UE down to the accuracy
of a RA: every time the UE moves from one cell to another and the RAI of the new cell
differs from the RAI of the old cell, the UE sends a RAU message to the SGSN. Recall that
a RA is a subgroup of cells in a LA. This makes PS information in idle state more accurate
than the CS counterpart. On the other side, the location of a UE in PMM connected
state is known by the SGSN with an accuracy of the Serving RNC (SRNC). It is then the
SRNC in the RAN that tracks the UE location. This state machine is used whenever the
PS domain is used, including GPRS operating in Iu mode.
2.4.3 GPRS Mobility Management (GMM)
For backward compatibility MM should also support GPRS in A/Gb mode. In this case
the state diagram reported in Figure 2.8 is used. Not that the terminology changes in
comparison to the diagrams we have seen so far. There are three states: Idle, Ready, and
Standby. In GMM Idle state the SGSN does not hold any information on the UE location.
In order to establish a MM context the UE shall perform a GPRS attach procedure and
transit to the GMM Ready state. In GMM Ready state the SGSN knows the location of
the UE on a cell level. The UE remains in GMM Ready state until the expiration of the
so-called Ready timer, even if no data is being transferred. When such a timer expires

Ready timer expiry

or
GPRS attach Force to standby
Idle Ready Standby
GPRS detach PDU transmission
Figure 2.8: MM states for GPRS (A/Gb mode)
the UE moves from GMM Ready state to GMM Standby state. In the latter, the SGSN
contains information on the UE location down to the RA level.
Terminals that are both capable of CS and PS services do not always need to perform
both LA updates and RA updates. If the network works in operation mode I, the UE
performs only RA update and SGSN and MSC/VLR exchange location information by
means of the new interface Gs (see section 4.1).

CHAPTER 3. ROAD MONITORING VIA CELLULAR SYSTEMS
Chapter 3
Road monitoring via cellular systems
The concept that a flow of mobile phones can be mapped to a stream of road users led
in the last few years to relevant industrial activity. Implementing an intelligent traffic
management infrastructure on top of the cellular network consists of several steps (see
Figure 3.1). First, location and mobility data needs to be collected from the network. The
Cellular Road
Data
data Filter data
processing
collection distribution
Cellular operator information, Other sources

Geographical maps, (taxis, public transports,
etc. cctv, etc.)
Figure 3.1: System overview
collected information is then sent to a processing unit that, with the help of geographical
maps, signal strength maps, and other data/information available to the cellular operator,
filters out data related to non-road users. Finally, in a third phase users of different roads
are differentiated, and the road traffic condition is inferred out of the collected data and
then distributed to the system users.
In this section we try to categorize all the approaches that have been presented in literature
in such regards and summarize the main activities that have been conducted by industries
and public institutions. Refer to appendix A for a detailed description of the projects and
the relative results.
Several methods can be used for collecting mobility/location data from the cellular net-
work. A first high level differentiation can be done between active and passive moni-
toring systems.

3.1 Active techniques
In active monitoring, the procedure used by the network to gather information about users’
location and/or position generates additional signaling traffic. Recall that we defined the
term location as the location of the user terminal in the logical structure of the network
(cell, routing area, location area, etc.) and position as the geographical position of the
user terminal in terms of geographical coordinates.
A typical procedure used for actively refine a user location information is the paging
procedure, which is normally used by the network for localizing a User Equipment (UE)
in case of incoming calls/connections. Paging might be used by the network to localize
generic UE, even when no incoming calls are present. On the other hand, the positioning
mechanisms, defined in the context of location services (LCS), are more complex proce-
dures used for retrieving information from a UE and calculating its geographical position.
At the moment of writing 3GPP standardized three positioning methods for UMTS:
• CellID-based positioning,
• Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA),
• Assisted-GPS (A-GPS).
Positions derived by active monitoring can be highly accurate, ranging from the cell
dimension (Cell-ID-based positioning) down to a few meters (A-GPS).
Solutions based on active monitoring are quite common on the market. A good survey
on various field-tests in Europe and USA can be found in [3] and [4]. Simulation-based
analysis of active monitoring systems have also been presented in literature. In [5] the
impact of several system parameters is studied, such as sampling frequency, accuracy of
the locations, number of locations available in a given area, etc. In [6] a segment-based
method for active monitoring is analyzed by considering several variables, such as data
collection interval, location update interval, and mobile penetration rate.
Application-based active monitoring is a special subcategory of active monitoring systems.

It is based on a client-server model. The mobiles run a dedicated software that reports
its location or its movements to a server outside the cellular network (Figure 3.2. Such
reports are transparent from the network perspective.
A typical example consists of a car-mounted GPS receiver equipped with a GPRS transceiver,
which reports the position to a server via the cellular network. Application-based active
monitoring has gained popularity in the last years. In 2000-2002 the Optimized Traffic in
Sweden (OPTIS) project [7] focused on the estimation of road traffic conditions by GPS
report via the GSM network. Results showed that travel time information of good quality
can be produced with the OPTIS concept. However computer simulations showed that
penetration of probes needs to be around 3-5% in a mid sized city (1 million inhabitants)
to give good quality travel times with updates each minute. In the Netherlands, GPS user
positioning data are used together with other GSM information to generate road traffic
data [8]. At the time of writing the product is available on the market. In [9] a software

3.2. PASSIVE TECHNIQUES
Mobile Client
(Java,
Symbian, or
WM)
Cellular External
Network Server
Figure 3.2: Application-based active monitoring
installed on volunteers’ mobile phones is used for collecting Cellular Dwell Time (CDT).
The latter is then used to characterize walking users and sky trains.
3.2 Passive techniques
In contrast to active monitoring, with passive techniques, signaling is silently collected

from one or more points in the network with no impact in the offered network load.
Real-time information, such as users behavior, terminal movement history, and terminal
positions are then retrieved by processing the collected signaling. The amount/type of
the retrieved information depends on the placement of the monitoring points and on the
state of the user terminal. Details on such a dependency will be given in section 4 for
both GSM/GPRS and UMTS technologies. In general, the closer the monitoring point is
to the base station (node B in UMTS), the larger the amount of relevant data that can
be collected. Similarly, the higher the activity of the user on its terminal, the larger the
information that can be collected.
The first project aimed at using mobile phone as traffic probes was the Cellular Applied
to ITS Tracking and Location (CAPITAL) project [10]. The goal was to generate traffic
condition estimates, such as speed and travel time, by using monitoring equipments in
eight cellular towers to geolocalize all the mobile phones being actively used. The system
was not able to accurately estimate the car speeds and detect incidents. In Europe,
the STRIP project [11] focused on the calculation of travel times from GSM signaling
captured on A/Abis interfaces. A field test in the Rhone Corridor of Lyons (France)
[12] showed little variation between the cellular phone data and the loop detector data
in the motorway segments. However a speed underestimation of ca. 30% was observed
in correspondence of urban ring segments with many commercial stops. In [13] cellular

phones are tracked using measurements report records generated by the terminal to the
network. Results showed that the number of measurements was sufficient to generate
average speeds with an accuracy of 8-16 Km/h. In the same period, several other projects
have focused on GSM passive monitoring, e.g. [3], [14], [15]. In mid 2003, a product of
Applied Generics was tested in the Netherlands in partnership with Logica plc (RoDIN24).
The software evolved and it is now used by Vodafone Netherlands in cooperation with
Tomtom Mobility Solutions [8]. It provides Road status information by using GSM users
positioning combined with GPS positions reports. However the technical approach and
the used business model are not clear, because of lack of publicly available information.
In Germany, the final project report for the research initiative Trafficonline is expected for
the end of 2008 [16] and a following commercial exploitation by the Vodafone traffic.online
service is expected. First results of a field test are given in [17]. The objective of the
project is to use the GSM network data to generate traffic data information and to
determine whether call volume is related to traffic volume. Other commercial projects
are recently active in the area of Floating Phone Data (FPD), or equivalently Cellular
Floating Vehicle Data (CFVD) (e.g. [18] and [19]), but none of them present a detailed
description of methods, algorithms, and results to the research community.
For all the mentioned projects, appendix A provides a detailed description of project
contributors, time-frames, and results.

CHAPTER 4. EXTENDED MONITORING FRAMEWORK
Chapter 4
Extended monitoring framework
In this chapter we first address problems and limitations of the approaches that have been
proposed in literature. We then propose a novel framework, which aims at overcoming
such limitations by combining different techniques in an integrated framework. The idea
is to deploy a system that goes beyond GSM monitoring by also covering UMTS and
GPRS, i.e. the packet switched domain, whose market penetration is increasing quickly.
4.1 Motivation
A thorough review of the various mechanisms presented in literature reveals a number

of limitations. Active techniques might present scalability problems when used in the
context of road monitoring, where a massive number of UE should be localized. Using
paging or LCS positioning mechanisms for a large number of UEs requires the transfer
of a considerable amount of data. The risk is to exhaust precious network resources,
particularly on control channels of the radio interface, and impact the service availability
for conventional cellular users. Another drawback relates to the UE battery: each time
a terminal reports information to the network it consumes power, reducing the stand-by
time.
In case of application-based active techniques battery life is not an issue (the typical
scenario is a car-mounted GPS receiver equipped with a GPRS transceiver). However,
such a technique is ineffective until the devices running the dedicated software reach a
considerable market penetration. Also the billing issue needs to be taken into account.
Passive techniques suffer from different types of problems, primarily the quality and gran-
ularity of the available information. All previous studies on passive techniques focus on
the CS GSM network and ignore the ongoing evolution towards PS networks, which is the
main feature of 3G and 4G systems [20]. Though most of the 3G devices can be attached
to both CS and PS domains, the trend is to migrate some common mobility functions to
the PS domain.
A clear example of this trend is the combined Location and Routing Area Updates. When

a UE is attached to both domains, a change of LA implies also a simultaneous change of

RA (RA are subsets of LA). The UE should therefore send a LAU and a RAU. However,
in order to avoid this duplicated signaling, networks might be set to operation mode I :
the UEs perform only RA update terminating at the SGSN, and the latter communicates
the location change to the MSC/VLR through the newly introduced Gs interface (Figure
4.1). Therefore, monitoring exclusively the CS domain might lead to a serious shortage
GMSC GGSN GMSC GGSN

Gn Gn
(2)
MSC/VLR SGSN MSC/VLR SGSN
Gs Gs
(2) (1) (1)
IuCS Gb IuCS Gb
A/IuCS IuPS A/IuCS IuPS
BSC RNC BSC RNC

(1)(2) (1)
Abis Iub Abis Iub
BTS Node B BTS Node B
Operation mode II Operation mode I

(1) RA update to the SGSN (1) Combined RA/LA update to the SGSN
(2) LA update to the MSC (2) LA update from SGSN to MSC
Figure 4.1: UMTS operation modes
of data in future cellular network.
To the best of our knowledge, at the moment of writing only one publication provides
a theoretical description of the new possibilities offered by 3G networks in the context
of road traffic monitoring[21]. The latter however focuses on the radio access network,
leaving the new CN mechanisms unexplored in this field. In all cases, the lack of pub-
licly available results prevents the scientific community from validating and refining these
mechanisms.
4.2 Architecture
Figure 4.2 depicts the architecture of our monitoring system. Probes are installed across
the CN infrastructure of an Austrian cellular operator. In particular, we collect signaling
messages from Gb, IuPS, and IuCS interfaces. We plan to extend our system with Iub
interface by 2009/Q2. In this study we focus on the CN data. Signaling messages are
first anonymized to preserve the privacy of the users. Tracing units collect and aggregate
signaling data, extract events, and deliver them to a processing unit via UDP in form
of event-based tickets. In the processing unit, the anonymized signaling events from the
operational network are explored for the design of road status inference algorithms.
We use mainly GnuAWK and Perl for analyzing the data and producing aggregated

4.3. EVENT TYPES
CN
GMSC GGSN
Gn
Gs
MSC/VLR SGSN Processing
Unit
Gb/IuPS Tracing
A/IuCS Unit
IuCS IuPS
BSS
BSC RNC Network Road
events events
Abis Iub
Tracing
BTS BTS Node B Node B Unit
RAN
Figure 4.2: Monitoring framework
statistics. Plots are then generated by using GnuPlot, a command-line driven interactive
data and function plotting utility.
The accuracy of mobility events collected from the network probes is bound to the 3GPP
MM protocol described in section 2.4. We have seen that MM lays its foundation into
three logical entities: Location Area, Routing Area, and cell. Without the use of active
techniques, these are the only location information that we can gather from our probes.
By monitoring both CS and PS domain interfaces, the system is able to capture the
location at cell granularity for terminals in GMM ready state and MM connected state,
at RA granularity for terminals in GMM Stand-by state and PMM idle state, and at LA
granularity for terminal in MM idle state (see section 2.4).
4.3 Event types
The processing unit processes signaling information that might relate to particular road
conditions. For each event the system stores a timestamp, the anonymized IMSI, TMSI/TLLI,
and the location information (MCC+MNC+LAC+RAC+CellID). We describe in this sec-
tion the type of monitored events that might be important to our purpose.
4.3.1 Events from the Gb interface
The Gb interface is used for communication between the SGSN and the 2G BSC. There-
fore, information on the Gb concerns GPRS-capable terminals attached to the 2G RAN.

On this interface, the signaling events that could relate to the road traffic conditions are
the following:
• Cell Update: A GPRS terminal in GMM ready state sends a Cell Update, i.e. it
changes cell;
• CS Paging: The SGSN pages a terminal in the CS domain (used in UMTS operation
mode I ).;
• Routing Area Update: A GPRS terminal attached to the PS domain sends a RAU,
i.e. it changes RA;
• Combined Routing Area and Location Area Update: A GPRS terminal attached to
both CS and PS domain changes LA and therefore also RA.
• Combined Routing Area and Location Area Update with IMSI attach: A GPRS ter-
minal attaches to the PS domain and the current RA differs from the one previously
stored in the SIM.
• Periodic Routing Area Update: A GPRS terminal sends a periodic RAU. This hap-
pens when terminals do not change RA for longer than a specific timer.
4.3.2 Events from the IuCS interface
The IuCS is used for communication between the RNC and the (3G) MSC. Information
on this interface concerns 3G customers that are IMSI attached to the network. Signaling
events relevant for our work include:
• Setup: A UMTS terminal request the establishment of a call;
• Connect ACK : A call is answered;
• Disconnect: A call is disconnected;
• SMS originated : A UMTS terminal sends an SMS;
• SMS terminated : A UMTS terminal receives an SMS;
• Location Area Update: A UMTS terminal attached to the CS domain sends a LAU,
i.e. it changes LA;
• Periodic Location Area Update: A UMTS terminal sends a periodic LAU. This
happens when terminals do not change LA for longer than a specific timer.

4.4. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
4.3.3 Events from the IuPS interface
This interface is used for communication between the RNC and the SGSN. Data concerns
customers that are PS attached to the network. From this interface relevant signaling
events include:
• Routing Area Update: A UMTS terminal attached to the PS domain changes RA;
• Combined Routing Area and Location Area Update: A UMTS terminal attached to
both CS and PS domain changes LA and therefore also RA.
• Combined Routing Area and Location Area Update with IMSI attach: A UMTS ter-
minal attaches to the PS domain and the current RA differs from the one previously
stored in the SIM.
• Periodic Routing Area Update: A UMTS terminal sends a periodic RAU. This
happens when terminals do not change LA for longer than a specific timer.
4.4 Geographical information
In order to estimate road conditions from network events, algorithms must be fed with
detailed geographical information of the operator radio access network. Without this
data, network events are just related to a number, rather than to an area.
In a first stage, we made a rough estimation of cellular coverage on the Austrian highway
by using a software written in C# that collects and logs radio events on a generic GPS-
capable Windows Mobile Pocket PC. In a second stage, a refinement of the geographical
information was required. Therefore we used data provided by the mobile operator.
4.4.1 C# application
In Windows Mobile OS, the communication between the system software and the radio
hardware is handled by the Radio Interface Layer (RIL). The latter is composed of two
modules: the RIL proxy and the RIL driver (see Figure 4.3). The RIL proxy is a dynamic-
link library (DLL) that manages the calls to the RIL driver. It serves as an abstraction
layer and provides common functions to the users for accessing the hardware-dependent
RIL driver.
The RIL proxy furnishes several radio functions. Particularly, RIL GetCellTowerInfo()
and the RIL GetSignalQuality() return pointers to the following structures:

Figure 4.3: Windows Mobile RIL architecture (from [22])
typedef struct {
DWORD cbSize;
DWORD dwParams;
DWORD dwMobileCountryCode;
DWORD dwMobileNetworkCode;
DWORD dwLocationAreaCode;
DWORD dwCellID;
DWORD dwBaseStationID;
DWORD dwBroadcastControlChannel;
DWORD dwRxLevel;
DWORD dwRxLevelFull;
DWORD dwRxLevelSub;
DWORD dwRxQuality;
DWORD dwRxQualityFull;
DWORD dwRxQualitySub;
DWORD dwIdleTimeSlot;
DWORD dwTimingAdvance;
DWORD dwGPRSCellID;
DWORD dwGPRSBaseStationID;
DWORD dwNumBCCH;
BYTE rgbBCCH[MAXLENGTH_BCCH];
BYTE rgbNMR[MAXLENGTH_NMR];
} RILCELLTOWERINFO;
typedef struct {
DWORD cbSize;
DWORD dwParams;
int nSignalStrength;
int nMinSignalStrength;

4.4. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
int nMaxSignalStrength;
DWORD dwBitErrorRate;
int nLowSignalStrength;
int nHighSignalStrength;
} RILSIGNALQUALITY;
We made a measurement campaign at the end of 2008. We traveled from Vienna to

the Austrian-Italian border (via A2 - Süd-Autobahn). A software was running during
the whole experiment in our UE and saving every 5 seconds on an internal database the
following information:
• timestamp;
• GPS coordinates (Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Angle, and Speed);
• Network information (MCC, MNC, LAC, CellID, and Received Signal Strength
Indicator).
4.4.2 TEMS files
Data collected in our measurement campaign was meant to provide a rough idea of the
cellular network design in the Austrian highway. Clearly, the deployment of road traffic
inference algorithms requires more detailed information on the operator RAN. To this
purpose we used information provided by the radio department of the mobile operator,
regarding the cells along the Süd-Öst-tangente in Vienna, and part of the Süd-Autobahn
in Lower-Austria. More specifically, for each cell covering the mentioned road sections we
used the following information:
• GPS coordinates of the Cell (Latitude, Longitude);
• Technology (UMTS, GSM 900MHz, and GSM 1800MHz);
• Cell Global Id (MCC, MNC, LAC, CellID);
• Routing Area Code;
• Cell Type (Macro, Micro, etc.);
• Horizontal Beamwidth;
• Azimuth.

CHAPTER 5. PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Chapter 5
Preliminary results
In this chapter we will explore some of the traces collected from our system. We first show
some generic statistics. We then point out some characteristics typical of cells covering
highways and freeways. We will focus on the Süd-Öst-tangente and the Süd-Autobahn in
Vienna and Niederösterreich). A first statistical differentiation between cells in proximity
of road sections and generic cells is discussed. In a second stage, we examine some special
cases, such as cells covering railways parallel to road sections. Finally, we will see the
effect of a road accident on the UMTS signaling.
All the plots in this chapter are rescaled in order not to disclose sensitive information
of the operator. For each plot we indicate the used tic (Time Interval Counter). The
latter has a “low-pass filter effect” on the statistics, therefore its value needs to be set by
trading off between large short-term fluctuation of the signal (in case of small tics) and
the inability to detect anomalies (in case of large tics). Note that the timestamps in
the plots always refer to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
5.1 Generic statistics
Figure 5.1 depicts the total amount of signaling events with a tic of 10 minutes received
by the system along an entire week. Although the plot aggregates all the signaling events,
some important considerations can be already drawn.
As expected, it is possible to note a strong daily variation of the collected signaling. Note
the marked difference between the working days and the weekends days. On Saturday
and Sunday the amount of signaling decreases of 30%-40% within respect to the working
days. This implies that a system that detects network anomalies and maps them into
road anomalies cannot be based on simply thresholding aggregate data. The peak hour,
i.e. when the largest amount of signaling flows across the network, during the working
days is in the afternoon at around 4 PM UTC (5 PM local-time). This may indicate that
peaks are mostly generated by mobility events, i.e. at this time many customers travel
from work to home. On the other hand, the lowest amount of signaling (around 10%
within respects to the peaks) is registered between 12 PM and 3 AM during the working

Number of Events (Rescaled) Number of Events (Rescaled)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Mon, 00:00 Mon, 00:00
Mon, 04:00 Mon, 04:00
Mon, 08:00 Mon, 08:00
Mon, 12:00 Mon, 12:00
working days.
Mon, 16:00 Mon, 16:00
Mon, 20:00 Mon, 20:00
Tue, 00:00 Tue, 00:00
Tue, 04:00 Tue, 04:00
Tue, 08:00 Tue, 08:00
Tue, 12:00 Tue, 12:00
Tue, 16:00 Tue, 16:00
Tue, 20:00 Tue, 20:00
Wed, 00:00 Wed, 00:00
Wed, 04:00 Wed, 04:00
Wed, 08:00 Wed, 08:00
Wed, 12:00 Wed, 12:00
Wed, 16:00 Wed, 16:00
ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

Wed, 20:00 Wed, 20:00
Thu, 00:00 Thu, 00:00
Thu, 04:00 Thu, 04:00
Thu, 08:00 Thu, 08:00
Thu, 12:00 Thu, 12:00
Thu, 16:00 Thu, 16:00
Thu, 20:00 Thu, 20:00
Fri, 00:00 Fri, 00:00
Fri, 04:00 Fri, 04:00
Fri, 08:00 Fri, 08:00
Fri, 12:00 Fri, 12:00
Fri, 16:00 Fri, 16:00
Fri, 20:00 Fri, 20:00
Sat, 00:00 Sat, 00:00
Sat, 04:00 Sat, 04:00
Sat, 08:00 Sat, 08:00
Sat, 12:00 Sat, 12:00
Sat, 16:00 Sat, 16:00
Sat, 20:00 Sat, 20:00
Figure 5.1: Time chart of total number of events; TIC=600s.
Sun, 00:00 Sun, 00:00

Sun, 04:00 Sun, 04:00
Sun, 08:00 Sun, 08:00
Sun, 12:00 Sun, 12:00
Sun, 16:00 Sun, 16:00
Sun, 20:00 Sun, 20:00
Mon, 00:00 Mon, 00:00
Figure 5.2: Time chart of total number of events in proximity of highways; TIC=600s.
5.1. GENERIC STATISTICS
days, and between 2 AM and 5 AM during the weekends. This is also consistent with
the fact that on weekends cellular users switch off their mobile phone later than in the
27
Figure 5.2 shows the same plot, this time restricted to all the cells covering the Süd-Öst-
tangente and the Süd-Autobahn. Note that the peaks during the rush hours are more
pronounced. This is explained by the fact that in these cells a big portion of the signaling
is related to mobility, i.e. Cell Updates, LAU, RAU, and Combined Rau and LAU.
5.2 Opposite traffic flows
We have chosen a convenient location in the Süd-Autobahn between Vienna and Wiener
Neustadt (See Figure 5.3). The peculiarity of this location is that it is at the border
between two LA and that the cells at these borders are on the highway and far from
any residential area. We investigated the correlation between mobility in the cellular
network and road traffic flows. Clearly without a trusty “ground truth” it is not possible
to validate such a correlation. Figure 5.4 and 5.5 show the number of combined RAU and
Vienna
(LAC_b)
(LAC_a)
Wiener
Neustadt
Figure 5.3: Road section for Figure 5.4 (LAC a) and 5.5 (LAC b)
LAU with a tic of ten minutes for the two border cells. Figure 5.4 depicts the number
of location changes toward the LAC a, while Figure 5.5 depicts the number of changes
toward LAC b. LAU toward LAC b increase in the morning, when most of the traffic is
likely directed toward Vienna. On the other hand, in the evening LAU toward LAC b
decrease and the number of mobile phones entering LAC a increase. Moreover, a peak
every Friday evening is registered. The dependency of the LAU from the road traffic flow
is clear.

5.3
Number of Combined RAU and LAU (Rescaled) Number of Combined RAU and LAU (Rescaled)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Tue, 12:00 Tue, 12:00
TIC=600s
TIC=600s
Tue, 16:00 Tue, 16:00
Tue, 20:00 Tue, 20:00
Wed, 00:00 Wed, 00:00
Wed, 04:00 Wed, 04:00
Wed, 08:00 Wed, 08:00
Wed, 12:00 Wed, 12:00
Wed, 16:00 Wed, 16:00
Railways
Wed, 20:00 Wed, 20:00
Thu, 00:00 Thu, 00:00
Thu, 04:00 Thu, 04:00
Thu, 08:00 Thu, 08:00
Thu, 12:00 Thu, 12:00
Thu, 16:00 Thu, 16:00
Thu, 20:00 Thu, 20:00
Fri, 00:00 Fri, 00:00
ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

Fri, 04:00 Fri, 04:00
Fri, 08:00 Fri, 08:00
Fri, 12:00 Fri, 12:00
Fri, 16:00 Fri, 16:00
Fri, 20:00 Fri, 20:00
Sat, 00:00 Sat, 00:00
Sat, 04:00 Sat, 04:00
Sat, 08:00 Sat, 08:00
Sat, 12:00 Sat, 12:00
Sat, 16:00 Sat, 16:00
Sat, 20:00 Sat, 20:00
Sun, 00:00 Sun, 00:00
Sun, 04:00 Sun, 04:00
Sun, 08:00 Sun, 08:00
Sun, 12:00 Sun, 12:00
Sun, 16:00 Sun, 16:00
Sun, 20:00 Sun, 20:00
Mon, 00:00 Mon, 00:00
Mon, 04:00 Mon, 04:00
Mon, 08:00 Mon, 08:00
Mon, 12:00 Mon, 12:00
Mon, 16:00 Mon, 16:00
Mon, 20:00 Mon, 20:00
Tue, 00:00 Tue, 00:00
Tue, 04:00 Tue, 04:00
Tue, 08:00 Tue, 08:00
Tue, 12:00 Tue, 12:00
plot considers two working days. Besides the normal night-day trend, it is possible to see
In figure 5.6 we plot the number of Combined RAU and LAU per minute in a LA border
Figure 5.5: Time chart of Combined RAU and LAU (Direction: Incoming Vienna);
Figure 5.4: Time chart of Combined RAU and LAU (Direction: Outgoing Vienna);
5.3. RAILWAYS
cell that covers both a highway and a railway heavily used by international trains. The
29
Number of Combined RAU and LAU (Rescaled) 1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Mon, 00:00
Mon, 02:00
Mon, 04:00
Mon, 06:00
Mon, 08:00
Mon, 10:00
Mon, 12:00
Mon, 14:00
Mon, 16:00
Mon, 18:00
Mon, 20:00
Mon, 22:00
Tue, 00:00
Tue, 02:00
Tue, 04:00
Tue, 06:00
Tue, 08:00
Tue, 10:00
Tue, 12:00
Tue, 14:00
Tue, 16:00
Tue, 18:00
Tue, 20:00
Tue, 22:00
Wed, 00:00
Wed, 02:00
Wed, 04:00
Wed, 06:00
Wed, 08:00
Wed, 10:00
Wed, 12:00
Wed, 14:00
Wed, 16:00
Wed, 18:00
Wed, 20:00
Wed, 22:00
Thu, 00:00
Figure 5.6: Time chart of Combined RAU and LAU on a railway. TIC=60s
regular spikes. The latter are generated by large amount of users updating their position
almost at the same time, i.e. train passengers. A confirmation of the nature of these
events comes from the fact that the spikes occur at the same time in different days. We
cross-checked this conjecture by analyzing the train schedules for that location on the
railway operator website [23].
Users traveling on trains can be easily identified because their trajectories are highly
correlated. By considering a history of two or three location updates they can be filtered
out from the dataset. In our future works we will deploy and test such mechanisms.
5.4 Why UMTS helps
As we have discussed in section 4.1, most of the methods proposed in literature for inferring
road traffic condition from cellular network only consider GSM signaling. Figure 5.7 shows
a comparison between the Combined RAU and LAU signaling flowing via the Gb interface
(BSC→SGSN) and via the IuPS interface (RNC→SGSN). The amount of signaling in the
Gb link is still larger than in the IuPS link. However, the plot shows that by neglecting
the IuPS a considerable amount of mobility signaling would be ignored. When a low
number of users is active, collecting data from different systems could become essential.
In the next few years, with the number of UMTS terminals still increasing, this would
lead to a serious shortage of information.

5.5. ACCIDENTS
1
IuPS
Gb
Number of RAU and LAU (Rescaled) 0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Mon, 00:00
Mon, 04:00
Mon, 08:00
Mon, 12:00
Mon, 16:00
Mon, 20:00
Tue, 00:00
Tue, 04:00
Tue, 08:00
Tue, 12:00
Tue, 16:00
Tue, 20:00
Wed, 00:00
Wed, 04:00
Wed, 08:00
Wed, 12:00
Wed, 16:00
Wed, 20:00
Thu, 00:00
Thu, 04:00
Thu, 08:00
Thu, 12:00
Thu, 16:00
Thu, 20:00
Fri, 00:00
Fri, 04:00
Fri, 08:00
Fri, 12:00
Fri, 16:00
Fri, 20:00
Sat, 00:00
Sat, 04:00
Sat, 08:00
Sat, 12:00
Sat, 16:00
Sat, 20:00
Sun, 00:00
Sun, 04:00
Sun, 08:00
Sun, 12:00
Sun, 16:00
Sun, 20:00
Mon, 00:00
Figure 5.7: Time chart of Combined RAU and LAU in the Gb and the IuPS interfaces;
TIC=600s
5.5 Accidents
During our measurements, we continuously monitored the road operator news feed for
potential road anomalies in the highway network. On Tuesday, February 17th, an accident
slowed down the traffic on the A2. Asfinag notified the accident at 5:25 PM (See Figure
5.8). On the same lane, proceeding for a few kilometers, there is a border between two
Figure 5.8: Asfinag notification on Road Pilot.

different LA. In Figure 5.9 we plot the number of Combined RAU and LAU for two days,
including the day of the accident. In other words, the plot depicts the number of users
moving from the LA where the accident occurred to the following LA in the direction
of travel of the lane of interest. In both days the typical “morning-peak” is visible, i.e.
1
Number of Combined RAU and LAU (Rescaled)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Tue, 00:00
Tue, 01:00
Tue, 02:00
Tue, 03:00
Tue, 04:00
Tue, 05:00
Tue, 06:00
Tue, 07:00
Tue, 08:00
Tue, 09:00
Tue, 10:00
Tue, 11:00
Tue, 12:00
Tue, 13:00
Tue, 14:00
Tue, 15:00
Tue, 16:00
Tue, 17:00
Tue, 18:00
Tue, 19:00
Tue, 20:00
Tue, 21:00
Tue, 22:00
Tue, 23:00
Wed, 00:00
Wed, 01:00
Wed, 02:00
Wed, 03:00
Wed, 04:00
Wed, 05:00
Wed, 06:00
Wed, 07:00
Wed, 08:00
Wed, 09:00
Wed, 10:00
Wed, 11:00
Wed, 12:00
Wed, 13:00
Wed, 14:00
Wed, 15:00
Wed, 16:00
Wed, 17:00
Wed, 18:00
Wed, 19:00
Wed, 20:00
Wed, 21:00
Wed, 22:00
Wed, 23:00
Thu, 00:00
Figure 5.9: Number of Combined RAU and LAU with tic=300s (Accident)
when the majority of cars is traveling toward Vienna. On Tuesday, at 4 PM UTC (5

PM in Austria) the signal is characterized by a notch immediately followed by a peak.
These abrupt changes are caused by the accident. The notch indicates that the number
of customers changing LA decreased suddenly: they were blocked or slowed down by the
accident. When the road traffic was restored, a large number of users changed LA in the
same tic, hence the plot presents a subsequent spike.
This event highlights the potentiality of using statistical analysis of the cellular network
signaling for detecting road anomalies.

CHAPTER 6. RESEARCH CHALLENGES AND FUTURE WORKS
Chapter 6
Research challenges and future works
In the previous chapter we have shown that specific statistics of the network signaling
can give a general indication of the current road condition. However, the final goal of the
proposed system is to map events on the cellular network to events on the road network.
To this end, we believe that two software agents should run in sequence on the processing
unit. The first agent takes as input network events (i.e. mobility and activity patterns
of anonymized users) and singles out data concerning road users on the road of interest.
The output of the first module is then processed by the second agent in order to infer the
road traffic condition. The complexity of each of these steps depends on the considered
scenario. For the sake of simplicity, in a first phase our future work will be still restricted
to highways in rural areas. We will then extend our framework to highways near urban
areas, where several entry points or parallel roads/railways increase the complexity of the
system. Finally, we will consider urban area roads where data collected from probes on
the radio access network are needed.
6.1 Single out road users
The first step is to obtain a data subset of road users only. To this purpose, we will
consider individual trajectory tracking instead of aggregated statistics. Static cellular
users (e.g. in-building users) present specific characteristics as they remain camped into
a single LA/RA/CELL for considerably longer periods in comparison to moving outdoor
users. Hence, active users can be easily filtered out by looking at the cell update rate,
whereas idle users can be filtered out by looking at LA/RA update rate.
However, the remaining subset is not yet restricted to road users only. Walking users
and users on transportation systems different than cars (e.g. trains, trams, etc.) need to
be identified and excluded from the processing. In [9] a model for differentiating walking
users from sky train passengers is proposed by statistically analyzing the user permanence
in a cell. Experimental results showed promising performance with accuracy up to 93%.
In [17] a method for filtering train passengers is evaluated in a scenario where the railway
is parallel to the road. Finally, [24] proposes methods to classify subscribers in public

CHAPTER 6. RESEARCH CHALLENGES AND FUTURE WORKS
transport vehicles in spite of low position accuracy.
Once the subset of the road users has been obtained, users on different roads should be
distinguished. Note that this task can be difficult when considering users on parallel roads,
since they might present extremely similar LA/RA/CELL update time sequences. In this
case we propose to track LA/RA/CELL updates history, for each user, for a suitable
amount of time. Looking at the recent trajectory records for individual users would help
to disentangle walking users and slow moving car user on a congested segment.
6.2 Road condition estimation
The road estimation module will perform the mapping of the signaling information to
the road conditions and rise warnings in case of relevant deviations from the “typical be-
havior” observed in the past, i.e. anomalies. The main challenge in developing anomaly
detection algorithms is that the “ground truth” about the real traffic conditions is gen-
erally unknown. The idea is that abrupt changes in some network signaling events might
be the symptom of a road anomaly (accident/congestion), for example:
1. drop in the handover rate;
2. abrupt change in the LR update;
3. increase in the number of calls/SMS;
4. drastic change in the number of road users.
Though, properly detecting these events is challenging due to the non-stationarity of the
processes, as shown in Section 5.1.
6.3 Smart integration of active and passive techniques
Although monitoring CS and PS domain can suffice in detecting road condition in simple
scenarios, a pure passive monitoring might fail in more complex situations. For this reason
it can be necessary to complement a passive system with active techniques. In two cases
active techniques can be used to improve the accuracy of passive systems:
1. Low number of active users: Passive monitoring can deliver road status infor-
mation only if a sufficiently high number of users is active (calling or connected).
When the number of active users decreases in a certain area the system looses res-
olution. On the other hand, a low number of active users means that the network
capacity is underutilized, therefore active monitoring can be activated without fear
of impacting the network performance.

6.3. SMART INTEGRATION OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE TECHNIQUES
2. Event uncertainty: When passive monitoring detects some abnormal condition

in the road that cannot be clearly mapped to a road event, active monitoring can
be temporarily enabled as a magnifying lens to gather more detailed information.

CHAPTER 7. PRIVACY ISSUES
Chapter 7
Privacy issues
When designing a system for the collection of mobility statistics from real operational
networks, primary importance should be given to the protection of customers’ privacy
and to data security. In this section we show that our approach does not undermine
users’ privacy and that there are no risks related to data security.
During this study, our software was fed by mobility events from a cellular monitoring sys-
tem. In the stream that we received, several precautions were already taken for preserving
the privacy of the users. More specifically:
1. Anonymization: All the events were completely anonymized, i.e. information

regarding user identity was obfuscated. In particular, in each event the field IMSI
(when present) was replaced by a one-way hash function of the real IMSI of the
user. In other words, the users generating an event cannot be identified from the
signaling traces.
2. Payload stripping: Our software does not receive the signaling message itself, but
only ticket-based events. Consequently, no user payload is accessed.
These precautions do not impair our research. Any information regarding user identities
or user payloads is not of any importance for the defined goal. A software for the detection
of road anomalies does not rely on who moves from A to B. The only required information
that is to be processed is how many customers follow the same mobility/behaviour pattern.
Anonymization and payload stripping enable the usage of such system, without hurting
at all the user privacy. Quoting the Austrian “Telekommunikationsgesetz” (TKG2003):
§93 Kommunikationsgeheimnis, Datenschutz

(1) Dem Kommunikationsgeheimnis unterliegen die Inhaltsdaten, die Verkehrsdaten und die
Standortdaten. Das Kommunikationsgeheimnis erstreckt sich auch auf die Daten erfolgloser
Verbindungsversuche.
§99. Verkehrsdaten
(1) Verkehrsdaten dürfen außer in den gesetzlich geregelten Fällen nicht gespeichert werden

und sind vom Betreiber nach Beendigung der Verbindung unverzüglich zu löschen oder zu
anonymisieren.
§101. Inhaltsdaten
(1) Inhaltsdaten dürfen - sofern die Speicherung nicht einen wesentlichen Bestandteil des
Kommunikationsdienstes darstellt - grundsätzlich nicht gespeichert werden. Sofern aus
technischen Gründen eine kurzfristige Speicherung erforderlich ist, hat der Anbieter nach
Wegfall dieser Gründe die gespeicherten Daten unverzüglich zu löschen.
§102. Andere Standortdaten als Verkehrsdaten
(1) Andere Standortdaten als Verkehrsdaten dürfen unbeschadet des §98 nur verarbeitet
werden, wenn sie
1. anonymisiert werden oder
2. die Benutzer oder Teilnehmer eine jederzeit widerrufbare Einwilligung gegeben haben.
Finally, some considerations should be drawn on data security. A potential software built
upon the presented approach would run within the operator infrastructure (see Figure
7.1). Data collection, filtering, and processing would be completely done in the trusted
domain of the mobile operator. A data distributor agent then acts as interface between
the trusted and untrusted domain and dispatches road information to external entities,
such as road operators or other interested parties.
IuPS
Iub Processing Cellular Users

Unit
IuCS Tracing
Unit Content
Gb GPS Vendors
Distributor
A
Network Road Road Operator
events events
others Tracing
Unit
Trusted Domain (mobile operator) Untrusted domain
Figure 7.1: Information flow: trusted to untrusted domain

CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSIONS
Chapter 8
Conclusions
In this report we have explored the possibility of using cellular networks for inferring road
traffic condition. We proposed an extended framework for the collection and the analysis
of signaling traces both from the CS and the PS domains of a mobile operator. We have
explored the collected data and preliminary results show the potentiality of such a system
for mapping cellular network signaling patterns into road anomalies. In particular, we
have shown that the road traffic flow does have an impact into the mobility signaling in
the cellular network. Events, such as accidents or congestions, produce abrupt changes
in the network signaling. A characterization of such changes could allow to build an
intelligent traffic management system with the help of the mobile operators.
Moreover a thorough review of the existing approaches for road traffic estimation via
cellular networks has been presented. In order to follow the ongoing evolution of the
cellular infrastructure, passive monitoring of PS and CS signaling must be combined
in a single framework. Furthermore, we have outlined the vision of a hybrid bi-modal
system that complements passive monitoring with active techniques whenever a passive-
only monitoring is not sufficient to achieve the required accuracy.
As for our future work, we are set to progress the development of an integrated road
estimation system, with particular focus on the research challenges highlighted in this
report.

APPENDIX A. RELATED PROJECTS AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
Appendix A
Related projects and commercial

products

A.1 CAPITAL
Partners Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Virginia Department of Trans-

portation (VDOT), Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA), Raytheon E-Systems
(ES), Farradyne Systems Inc. (FSI) and Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile (BANM).
Project period August 1993 - November 1995.
Description The CAPITAL (Cellular APplied to ITS Tracking And Location) project
focused on geopositioning vehicles equipped with cellular telephones over time to measure
traffic conditions (speed on traffic links and incidence detection) over a wide geographic
area. In [10], the following objectives are remarked:
1. To determine if the use of cellular telephone technologies provide a cost effective

means of wide area traffic surveillance.
2. To determine if information from cellular telephone traffic can be effectively inte-

grated into a realtime area-wide traffic system management (surveillance/control)
system, with specific applications for Advanced Traffic Management Systems, Ad-
vanced Traveler Information Systems, and Advanced Public Transportation Sys-
tems.
3. To determine if packet data transmission over the cellular telephone communications

network provides an effective means of disseminating real-time-area-wide traffic in-
formation.
Data was collected in eight base station of Bell Atlantic cellular network. The system
detected cellular call initiations in the test area and geolocated the calls. If the calls were
on roadways of interest, the calls would be geolocated over time to estimate vehicle speed.
If the calls were emergency in nature (911), they would be given priority for geolocation
and reporting. The vehicle speeds and emergency call origins were used to report speeds
on traffic links and warn of potential traffic incidences.
Results Evaluation of performance was conducted by the University of Maryland. They

found a geolocation accuracy of 1̃00 meters. Quoting [10], “link speed estimates and speed
trend data cannot be accurately estimated automatically by the system (the output was
accurate only about 20% of the time). Incident detection was found to be best determined
manually by an operator trained in using the system. Computer automated assessment
of the geolocation data to estimate traffic condition and incident detection was found
to produce inconsistent results. More robust algorithms which take into account the
statistical nature of the geolocation data must be developed to completely automate the
process. The geolocation technology accuracy is adequate to assign vehicles to the correct
link and direction of travel but does not appear to be accurate enough to adequately
estimate speed”.

A.2. STRIP
A.2 STRIP
Partners Société Française de Radiotéléphone (SFR) and French Government.
Project period 1999-2001
Description STRIP (System for TRaffic Information and Positioning) was a subproject
of SERTI (Southern European Road Telematic Implementations), which is in charge of
managing the heavy traffic flow from Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain to Italy
during summer and winter holidays. The objective of the project was to estimate highway
travel times by collection and processing the GSM signaling on the A/Abis interfaces. A
field test has been conducted on two urban freeways near Lyon. An A/Abis probing
system was installed by the French cellular operator SFR. Mobile Originated calls are
located by sniffing measurement reports on the SACCH (each 480ms), and by collecting
Timing Advance (TA), Rxlev, and Rxqual values. A dedicated computer processes then
the data, discarding users outside a strip of 1100 meters centered on the motorway axis
and by using algorithms of map matching.
Results At the time of writing the final project report is not available on the internet,
tough it is cited by several scientific publications. In [3] a summary of the project results
is presented. The accuracy of the system is calculated by comparing data from loops
detectors and from Cellular probes. A little variation between the cellular phone data
and the loop detector data in the motorway segments was observed. However a speed
underestimation of ca. 32% was observed in correspondance of urban ring segments with
many commercial stops. Moreover, the mean speed variations from the cellular probes
were much larger than the mean speed variation from the loops detector. Finally, the
statistical analysis showed a strong relationship between the number of outgoing cellular
calls and the level of incidents.

A.3 OPTIS
Partners Volvo Trucks, Volvo Cars, Scania Trucks, Saab Automobile, and Swedish
National Road Administration (SNRA).
Project period 2000-2002
Description Project goal was to develop a cost effective method of collecting traffic data
in order to create good traveler information. Vehicles sends GPS position to an OPTIS
server via GSM/SMS or GPRS. The server processes the data, applies map matching
algorithms (so that in-vehicle equipments do not need digital maps), and estimates road
conditions. A simulator has been created within the project and its accuracy verified with
a field test.
Results System performance has been evaluated by a field trial in Gothenburg. A

summary of the results can be found in [25]. 50% of the probes were installed in taxis.
The field trial comparisons show that OPTIS travel times are equal to camera and queue
warning measurements. Computer simulation shows that penetration of probes needs to
be around 3-5% in a mid sized city (1 million inhabitants) to give good quality travel
times with updates each minute.

A.4. DO-IT
A.4 Do-iT
Partners DDG Gesellschaft für Verkehrsdaten mbH, Universität Stuttgart, Innenminis-

terium Baden-Württemberg, Stadt Karlsruhe - Tiefbauamt, Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart
- Technisches Referat.
Project period April 2005 - April 2008
Description The Do-iT (Data Optimization for Integrated Telematics) project aims
at providing optimal routes by extracting real-time road traffic information by passive
monitoring the GSM infrastructure. Data is collected from T-Mobile (T-D1) in Germany.
A and Abis interfaces are tapped for acquisition and both active and stand-by mobile
phones are tracked. Measurements are collected and combined with network information,
e.g. network geometry, to calculate users speed. Individual users and public transporta-
tions are separated and a map-matching algorithm is applied. Source-Destination matrix
are also generated for facilitating road infrastructure improvements.
Results A final project report is not available at the moment. Preliminary results in [24]
showed that the system is able to differentiate between individual and public transport
participants increasing the reliability of the traffic estimates. In [26] positioning accuracy
is evaluated in a test run. When compared to GPS data, a simple matching to operator
signal strength maps presents a standard deviation of 300 meters. This accuracy is not
sufficient for applying normal map-matching algorithms. For this reason, a so-called
“map-aiding” algorithm is developed in Do-iT, based on trajectories instead of positions.

A.5 Traffic.online
Partners Technische Universität Braunschweig, VMZ Berlin Betreibergesellschaft mbH,

OECON Ingenieurgesellschaft für Industrieberatung und Projektmanagement mbH, Voda-
fone Pilotentwicklung GmbH, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.(DLR),
Volkswagen AG.
Project period January 2005 - February 2007
Description Similarly to the Do-iT project, traffic.online aims at using a GSM network
monitoring system to provide road status information. Data is collected on the Vodafone
Germany GSM network by monitoring the A and the Abis interfaces. Handover infor-
mation, location area updates and signaling data are used combined with digital map
for calculating travel times and velocities on different road segments. The main project
characteristics are listed in [16]:
1. The system should be based on data from cellular network only,
2. The system should be able to calculate average travel velocity and number of vehicles
in both interurban and urban roads,
3. A live demonstration should validate the system,
4. Limitations, such as required number of passive/active users and QoS, should be

identified and quantified.
Data is collected via probes at the BSC. A filtering and a first data processing is performed
and, finally, anonimized data is sent to the traffic.online platform. A lack of public
available information prevented us to deepen our knowledge on traffic.online.
Results A field test has been developed in Berlin and other tests has been performed
via simulation with the opensource SUMO simulator. The final project report is not
publicly available. However some results have been presented in Intelligent Transportation
Systems conferences. In [16], authors claim that the system is able to provide high quality
information on motorways and A-Roads, while it presents shortcomings in urban roads.
Reasons are related to the slow car speeds, short call-durations, and high volume of UMTS
users, all characteristics typical to the urban environment. In [17], the filtering of train
passengers is evaluated in a scenario where the railway is parallel to the road. The test is
located in a Location Area border, thus results are partially significant.

A.6. CELLINT TRAFFICSENSE
A.6 Cellint Trafficsense
Description Cellint, an Israel based company, developed TrafficSense, based on the

patented VirtualSensor technology. According to the product brochure “TrafficSense mea-
sures traffic data by analyzing the movement of anonymous cellular phones in vehicles.
The system connects passively to cellular networks and continuously monitors the control
channel to extract traffic information from anonymous cellular signaling data. Proprietary
pattern matching and analysis algorithms are used to correlate each vehicle to the road it
is traveling on, while differentiating even between roads that are less than 50 yards apart.
TrafficSense measures the exact travel-time of each vehicle in small intervals, every few
hundred yards and provides complete real-time traffic data. The output data can then
be interfaced with the customers’ control centers or to traffic data delivery systems to
generate traffic predictions according to historical patterns. TrafficSense is compatible
with all types of cellular networks and does not require any network or handset changes.
It is completely passive and does not load the cellular network.”
Performance TrafficSense performance has been evaluated by independent institutions.

Evaluation reports are available on request on the company website [27]. The following
general results are reported:
• Slowdown Detection delay of a few minutes (1 minutes in dense cellular environ-

ments).
• Less than 5 mph difference between TrafficSense’s local speeds and sensor’s speed.
• Less than 10% average error in travel times measurements during speed fluctuation.
Customers
• Kansas City for the Kansas Department of Transportation (USA) 20061
• Highway 1 in Israel for the Israeli National Road Company 2005
• Atlanta for Georgia Department of Transportation (USA) 2006
• Ayalon highway for Ayalon HW Co. (an Israeli DOT agency) 2004
1
Free live traffic information are accessible at http://www.kcscout.com/

A.7 Estimotion CFVDTM
Description CFVD (Cellular Floating Vehicle Data) was developed by Israel based
Estimotion Inc.[28] which was founded in July 2000 and was acquired by ITIS Holding
Plc [19] in December 2003. CFVD is a patented technology, which provides a system
for measuring and forecasting real time traffic flow based on anonymously sampling the
positions of mobile phones. In comparison to the other products, CFVD is claimed to
produce accurate forecasts of traffic situations, including the identification of “hints”
to congestion buildup and the prediction of the propagation of traffic problems along
the network. Details on the underlying technology are not publicly available. It seems
however that multiple sources are used together with cellular data for increasing the
system accuracy.
Performance An independent evaluation has been performed in Antwerp (Belgium) by

Transport and Mobility Leuven and Be-Mobile N.V. and in Tel-Aviv (Israel) by University
of Negev. The evaluation reports are not available on the internet. Some information on
the Antwerp site is quoted in [29]: “On motorways the relative error between CFVD and
GPS travel times is below 15% for over 70% to even 90% of the time. In relation to the
instantaneous travel times from the single loop detectors they agree for some 81% of the
time within 15% of each other”.

A.8. TOMTOM RODIN24
A.8 TomTom RoDIN24
Description RoDIN24 is a product developed in 2003 by Applied Generics, a small

Scottish company. In RoDIN24, signaling from the Abis interface is collected. TA value
reports from a particular handset over a short period of time are analyzed for determining
its route and speed. Details on the technology are not publicly available. The solution
has been implemented in 2003 in the province of Noord Brabant. The company was
acquired in 2006 by Tomtom, which signed an agreement with Vodafone Netherlands for
the collection of GSM data. Lately, agreements have been signed with other European
mobile operators and the service is now provided (or planned) in the United Kingdom
(Vodafone UK), Germany (Vodafone Germany), France (SFR), Switzerland (Swisscom),
and Belgium (BASE).
Performance The RoDIN24 solution has been validated in 2003 by Goudappel Coffeng,
a Dutch consultancy company in the field of traffic and transport. The evaluation report
is only available in dutch [30]. In [4], general results are reported. RoDIN24 produces
results comparable to GPS-assisted system and loop detector data. Additionally, the
product is also reliable at speeds less than 20km/h and calculates journey time accurately
across junctions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography
[1] M. C. Gonzalez, et al. Understanding individual human mobility patterns. Nature,

453(7196):779–782, June 2008.
[2] Robin Smit. An examination of congestion in road traffic emission models and their
application to urban road networks. PhD thesis, Griffith University, Faculty of En-
vironmental Science, March 2006.
[3] Y. Youngbin. The State of Cellular Probes. Technical report, California PATH
Research Project, University of California, CA, USA, July 2003.
[4] NHCRP Project 70-01. Probe-based Traffic Monitoring - State-of-the-Practice Re-
port. Technical report, University of Virginia - Center for Transportation Studies,
Nov. 2005.
[5] R. Cayford and T. Johnson. Operational Parameters Affecting the Use of Anonymous
Cell Phone Tracking for Generating Traffic Information. Technical report, Trans-
portation Research Board Annual Meeting, TRB 2003, Washington, D.C., USA,
Jan. 2003.
[6] W. C. Mark Hsiao and S. K. Jason Chang. Segment based Traffic Information
Estimation Method Using Cellular Network Data. In IEEE Intelligent Transportation
Systems Conference, Austria, Sept. 2005.
[7] Karlsson and Niclas. Floating Car Data Deployment and Traffic Advisory Services,
The OPTIS project 2000-2002. Presentation, Volvo Technology Corporation, 2003.
[8] B. Rutten and R. Schäfer. The Connected Car. Whitepaper, TOMTOM Mobility
Solutions, June 2007.
[9] K. Puntumapon and W. Pattara-atikom. Classification of Cellular Phone Mobility
using Naive Bayes Model. In IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC 2008
Spring, Singapore, May 2008.
[10] University of Maryland Transportation Studies Center. Final Evaluation Report for
the CAPITAL-ITS Operational Test and Demonstration Program. Technical report,
University of Maryland, College Park, 1997.
[11] J. Remy. Computing travel time-estimates from GSM signalling messages: the
STRIP project. In IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Oackland,
CA, USA, Aug. 2001.
[12] J. Ygnace. Travel timespeed estimates on the French Rhone Comdor Network using
cellular phones as probes. Technical report, INRETS, Lyon, France, Dec. 2001.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[13] R. Cayford and Y. Youngbin. Field Operational Test using Anonymous Cell Phone
Tracking for Generating Traffic Information. Technical report, Transportation Re-
search Board Annual Meeting, TRB 2006, Washington, D.C., USA, Jan. 2006.
[14] J. Virtanen. Mobile phones as probes in travel time monitoring. Technical report,
Finnish Road Administration, Helsinki, Finland, 2002.
[15] A. Hillson and M. De Santis. Traffic Monitoring Application of Cellular Positioning
Technology: Proof of Concept. Technical report, Cell-Loc Inc., Calgary, Canada,
June 2002.
[16] C. Birle. Via GSM network data to traffic information in real time. Presentation,
Intelligent Transport Systems Munich, Dec. 2007.
[17] M. Höpfner and et. al. Cellular Data for Traffic Management. In 6th European
Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport System and Services, June 2007.
[18] Cellint TrafficSense. Performance and Limitations of Cellular Based Traffic Moni-
toring Systems. Presentation, 6th European Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent
Transport System and Services, June 2007.
[19] ITIS Holdings plc. http://www.itisholdings.com/cfvd.asp.
[20] P. Beming, et al. Lte-sae architecture and performance. Ericsson Review, 20(3),
2007.
[21] D. Gundlegard and J. Karlsson. Generating Road Traffic Information from Cellular
Networks - New Possibilities in UMTS. In 6th International Conference on ITS
Telecommunications, June 2006.
[22] Microsoft Developer Network - RIL Architecture. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/aa919462.aspx.
[23] Österreichische Bundesbahnen, Austrian Federal Railways. http://www.oebb.at.
[24] R. Schollmeyer and T. Wiltschko. Classification of public transport vehicles using
cellular mobile radio data. In 6th European Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent
Transport System and Services, June 2007.
[25] G. Lind and A. Lindkvist, OPTIS Consortium. OPTIS - Optimised traffic in Sweden.
Technical report, Movea Traffic Consultancy Ltd, Feb. 2006.
[26] T. Wiltschko, at al. Acquisition of traffic state information by mobile phone posi-
tioning. In 6th European Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport System
and Services, June 2007.
[27] Cellint. http://www.cellint.com.
[28] Estimotion Inc. http://www.estimotion.com.
[29] ITIS holding plc. Cellular Traffic Data Collection. Presentation, 6th European
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[30] M.J.M. Van der Vlist and F. Brandt and W.J.H. Janse. Brabantse Wegen Beter
Zichtbaar, Validatie MTS. Tech. Report (in Dutch), Goudappel Coffeng, 2004.

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ftw.

Road Traffic information from

ftw. Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

2 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

2.1 Architecture ................................................................................... 6

2.2 Protocol stack ................................................................................ 8

2.3 Location concepts............................................................................ 9

2.4 CN Mobility Management ................................................................. 11

2.4.1 Circuit Switched Mobility Management (MM) ............................. 12

2.4.2 Packet Switched Mobility Management (PMM)............................ 13

2.4.3 GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) ........................................ 13

3 Road monitoring via cellular systems 15

3.1 Active techniques ............................................................................ 16

3.2 Passive techniques ........................................................................... 17

4 Extended monitoring framework 19

4.1 Motivation ..................................................................................... 19

4.2 Architecture ................................................................................... 20

4.3 Event types.................................................................................... 21

4.3.1 Events from the Gb interface ................................................... 21

4.3.2 Events from the IuCS interface ................................................. 22

4.3.3 Events from the IuPS interface ................................................. 23

ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 1

4.4 Geographical information .................................................................. 23

4.4.1 C# application ..................................................................... 23

4.4.2 TEMS files ........................................................................... 25

5.1 Generic statistics............................................................................. 26

5.2 Opposite traffic flows ....................................................................... 28

5.4 Why UMTS helps ........................................................................... 30

6 Research challenges and future works 33

6.1 Single out road users........................................................................ 33

6.2 Road condition estimation................................................................. 34

6.3 Smart integration of active and passive techniques ................................. 34

A Related projects and commercial products 39

A.2 STRIP .......................................................................................... 41

A.3 OPTIS .......................................................................................... 42

A.4 Do-iT ........................................................................................... 43

A.5 Traffic.online .................................................................................. 44

A.6 Cellint Trafficsense .......................................................................... 45

A.7 Estimotion CFVDTM ........................................................................ 46

A.8 TomTom RoDIN24 .......................................................................... 47

2 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

CCTVs Variable signs

Figure 1.1: Typical system for road traffic data collection

ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 3

Road user = Potential cellular users

Figure 1.2: Road traffic data collection from cellular systems

The remainder of this report is organized as follows: in chapter 2 we provide a short

4 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 5

6 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

An overview of a UMTS network structure is presented in Figure 2.1 containing the

BTS BTS Node B Node B

Figure 2.1: UMTS network overview

ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 7

2.2 Protocol stack

Control plane User plane

Figure 2.2: UMTS protocol stack

8 ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien

UE Node B RNC SGSN GGSN

Figure 2.3: Third layer protocols

2.3 Location concepts

ftw. - Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien 9

Figure 2.4: Logical network structure