Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling

Wei Wu; Yue Wang; Joao Bartolo Gomes; Dang The Ang; Spiros Antonatos; Mingqiang Xue; Peng Yang; Ghim Eng Yap; Xiaoli Li; Shonali Krishnaswamy; James Decraene; Amy Shi-Nash

doi:10.1109/MDM.2014.46

Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling

Wei Wu, Yue Wang, Joao Bartolo Gomes, Dang The Ang, Spiros Antonatos, Mingqiang Xue, Peng Yang, Ghim Eng Yap, Xiaoli Li, Shonali Krishnaswamy, James Decraene, Amy Shi-Nash

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One major problem of using location data collected from mobile cellular networks for mobility modelling is the oscillation phenomenon. An oscillation occurs when a mobile phone intermittently switches between cell towers instead of connecting to the nearest cell tower. For the purpose of mobility modeling, the location data needs to be cleansed to approximate the mobile device's actual location. However, this constitutes a challenge because the mobile device's true location is not known. In this paper, we study the oscillation resolution problem. We propose an algorithm framework called DECRE (Detect, Expand, Check, Remove) to detect and remove oscillation logs. To make informed decisions DECRE includes four steps: Detect, to identify log sequences that may contain oscillation using a few heuristics based on the concepts of stable period and moving at impossible speed, Expand, to look before and after suspicious records to gain more information, Check, to check whether a cell tower is observed repeatedly (which is a strong indication of oscillation), and Remove, resolving oscillation by selecting a cell tower to approximate the mobile device's actual location. Our experimental results on travel diaries show that our oscillation resolution approach is able to remove records that are far from mobile device's ground-truth locations, improve the quality of the location data, and performs better than an existing method. Our performance study on large scale cell tower data shows that the MapReduce implementation of our approach is able to process 1 Terabyte of cell tower data in five hours using a small cluster.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014
Subtitle of host publication	15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia
Editors	Jadwiga Indulska, Mohamed Mokbel, Daniela Nicklas
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	317-324
Number of pages	8
Volume	1
ISBN (Print)	9781479957057
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/MDM.2014.46
Publication status	Published - 2014
Externally published	Yes
Event	International Conference on Mobile Data Management 2014 - Brisbane, Australia Duration: 15 Jul 2014 → 18 Jul 2014 Conference number: 15th http://www.mdmconferences.org/mdm2014/

Conference

Conference	International Conference on Mobile Data Management 2014
Abbreviated title	MDM 2014
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Brisbane
Period	15/07/14 → 18/07/14
Internet address	http://www.mdmconferences.org/mdm2014/

Access to Document

10.1109/MDM.2014.46

Cite this

Wu, W., Wang, Y., Gomes, J. B., The Ang, D., Antonatos, S., Xue, M., Yang, P., Yap, G. E., Li, X., Krishnaswamy, S., Decraene, J., & Shi-Nash, A. (2014). Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling. In J. Indulska, M. Mokbel, & D. Nicklas (Eds.), Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014: 15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia (Vol. 1, pp. 317-324). [6916937] IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/MDM.2014.46

Wu, Wei ; Wang, Yue ; Gomes, Joao Bartolo et al. / Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling. Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014: 15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia. editor / Jadwiga Indulska ; Mohamed Mokbel ; Daniela Nicklas. Vol. 1 Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2014. pp. 317-324

@inproceedings{9b35a2f46bdd44e683c438dfb4e4a779,

title = "Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling",

abstract = "One major problem of using location data collected from mobile cellular networks for mobility modelling is the oscillation phenomenon. An oscillation occurs when a mobile phone intermittently switches between cell towers instead of connecting to the nearest cell tower. For the purpose of mobility modeling, the location data needs to be cleansed to approximate the mobile device's actual location. However, this constitutes a challenge because the mobile device's true location is not known. In this paper, we study the oscillation resolution problem. We propose an algorithm framework called DECRE (Detect, Expand, Check, Remove) to detect and remove oscillation logs. To make informed decisions DECRE includes four steps: Detect, to identify log sequences that may contain oscillation using a few heuristics based on the concepts of stable period and moving at impossible speed, Expand, to look before and after suspicious records to gain more information, Check, to check whether a cell tower is observed repeatedly (which is a strong indication of oscillation), and Remove, resolving oscillation by selecting a cell tower to approximate the mobile device's actual location. Our experimental results on travel diaries show that our oscillation resolution approach is able to remove records that are far from mobile device's ground-truth locations, improve the quality of the location data, and performs better than an existing method. Our performance study on large scale cell tower data shows that the MapReduce implementation of our approach is able to process 1 Terabyte of cell tower data in five hours using a small cluster.",

author = "Wei Wu and Yue Wang and Gomes, {Joao Bartolo} and {The Ang}, Dang and Spiros Antonatos and Mingqiang Xue and Peng Yang and Yap, {Ghim Eng} and Xiaoli Li and Shonali Krishnaswamy and James Decraene and Amy Shi-Nash",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.1109/MDM.2014.46",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781479957057",

volume = "1",

pages = "317--324",

editor = "Indulska, {Jadwiga } and Mokbel, {Mohamed } and Nicklas, {Daniela }",

booktitle = "Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014",

publisher = "IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",

address = "United States of America",

note = "International Conference on Mobile Data Management 2014, MDM 2014 ; Conference date: 15-07-2014 Through 18-07-2014",

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Wu, W, Wang, Y, Gomes, JB, The Ang, D, Antonatos, S, Xue, M, Yang, P, Yap, GE, Li, X, Krishnaswamy, S, Decraene, J & Shi-Nash, A 2014, Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling. in J Indulska, M Mokbel & D Nicklas (eds), Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014: 15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia. vol. 1, 6916937, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 317-324, International Conference on Mobile Data Management 2014, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 15/07/14. https://doi.org/10.1109/MDM.2014.46

Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling. / Wu, Wei; Wang, Yue; Gomes, Joao Bartolo et al.

Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014: 15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia. ed. / Jadwiga Indulska; Mohamed Mokbel; Daniela Nicklas. Vol. 1 Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2014. p. 317-324 6916937.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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AU - Wu, Wei

AU - Wang, Yue

AU - Gomes, Joao Bartolo

AU - The Ang, Dang

AU - Antonatos, Spiros

AU - Xue, Mingqiang

AU - Yang, Peng

AU - Yap, Ghim Eng

AU - Li, Xiaoli

AU - Krishnaswamy, Shonali

AU - Decraene, James

AU - Shi-Nash, Amy

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N2 - One major problem of using location data collected from mobile cellular networks for mobility modelling is the oscillation phenomenon. An oscillation occurs when a mobile phone intermittently switches between cell towers instead of connecting to the nearest cell tower. For the purpose of mobility modeling, the location data needs to be cleansed to approximate the mobile device's actual location. However, this constitutes a challenge because the mobile device's true location is not known. In this paper, we study the oscillation resolution problem. We propose an algorithm framework called DECRE (Detect, Expand, Check, Remove) to detect and remove oscillation logs. To make informed decisions DECRE includes four steps: Detect, to identify log sequences that may contain oscillation using a few heuristics based on the concepts of stable period and moving at impossible speed, Expand, to look before and after suspicious records to gain more information, Check, to check whether a cell tower is observed repeatedly (which is a strong indication of oscillation), and Remove, resolving oscillation by selecting a cell tower to approximate the mobile device's actual location. Our experimental results on travel diaries show that our oscillation resolution approach is able to remove records that are far from mobile device's ground-truth locations, improve the quality of the location data, and performs better than an existing method. Our performance study on large scale cell tower data shows that the MapReduce implementation of our approach is able to process 1 Terabyte of cell tower data in five hours using a small cluster.

AB - One major problem of using location data collected from mobile cellular networks for mobility modelling is the oscillation phenomenon. An oscillation occurs when a mobile phone intermittently switches between cell towers instead of connecting to the nearest cell tower. For the purpose of mobility modeling, the location data needs to be cleansed to approximate the mobile device's actual location. However, this constitutes a challenge because the mobile device's true location is not known. In this paper, we study the oscillation resolution problem. We propose an algorithm framework called DECRE (Detect, Expand, Check, Remove) to detect and remove oscillation logs. To make informed decisions DECRE includes four steps: Detect, to identify log sequences that may contain oscillation using a few heuristics based on the concepts of stable period and moving at impossible speed, Expand, to look before and after suspicious records to gain more information, Check, to check whether a cell tower is observed repeatedly (which is a strong indication of oscillation), and Remove, resolving oscillation by selecting a cell tower to approximate the mobile device's actual location. Our experimental results on travel diaries show that our oscillation resolution approach is able to remove records that are far from mobile device's ground-truth locations, improve the quality of the location data, and performs better than an existing method. Our performance study on large scale cell tower data shows that the MapReduce implementation of our approach is able to process 1 Terabyte of cell tower data in five hours using a small cluster.

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DO - 10.1109/MDM.2014.46

M3 - Conference Paper

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A2 - Indulska, Jadwiga

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Wu W, Wang Y, Gomes JB, The Ang D, Antonatos S, Xue M et al. Oscillation resolution for mobile phone cellular tower data to enable mobility modelling. In Indulska J, Mokbel M, Nicklas D, editors, Proceedings - 2014 IEEE/MDM 15th International Conference on Mobile Data Management, MDM 2014: 15-18 July 2014 Brisbane, Australia. Vol. 1. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2014. p. 317-324. 6916937 https://doi.org/10.1109/MDM.2014.46