Partner News: Traffic Online project on floating phone data concluded

Date: 26 June 2008

In the Traffic Online project a method was developed to extensively deduce information concerning the traffic situation from mobile network data, for which, anonymous mobile network provider data is used. When either an activated mobile phone moves from one cell into another, or a mobile phone in standby mode moves into a different location area a handover is performed. If the route can be derived from the data, velocity is calculated using the time between two events. As a result, data from a huge number of mobile phones can shed light on the traffic situation.

ERTICO Partner German Aerospace Center (DLR) has identified and validated the given limits of the method by performing a field test during the FIFA Worldcup 2006™ in Berlin (Germany) with a specific simulation. The traffic simulation software SUMO, originally developed by DLR, was combined with a GSM simulation.

The results: The approach delivers very good results on motorways and major traffic routes, but it is more difficult to assign a mobile phone to a route in the city or in an environment with parallel routes. In the future the simulation will enable more researches in operation using floating phone data. Under the administration of the Technical University Braunschweig, the DLR worked together with OECON, VMZ Berlin, Vodafone Group R&D and Volkswagen. The BMWi funded project was successfully completed in 2007.