| CPC H04W 16/18 (2013.01) [H04W 64/003 (2013.01)] | 8 Claims |
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1. A method, implemented by a data processing system, for computing Origin-Destination matrices indicative of movements, in a geographic area of interest, of physical entities being users of mobile communication terminals configured to be adapted to interact with a mobile communication network comprising a plurality of network cells covering said geographic area of interest, each Origin-Destination matrix being related to a respective time slot of an observation time period and comprising a plurality of entries, the method comprising:
subdividing said geographic area of interest in a plurality of geographic zones, each entry of an Origin-Destination matrix to be computed containing an indication of a number of movements from one geographic zone to another geographic zone of said plurality of geographic zones in said respective time slot;
subdividing the geographic area of interest in a plurality of geographic area portions;
causing mobile communication terminals served by the mobile communication network and situated in the geographic area of interest to calculate respective geographic position estimates and provide the calculated geographic position estimates to the data processing system;
distributing an overall number of geographic position estimates, received from the mobile communication terminals, on said geographic area portions by assigning to each geographic area portion of said plurality of geographic area portions a respective number of geographic position estimates corresponding to geographic positions estimates falling within said geographic area portion;
for each of said plurality of network cells: determining, among said plurality of geographic area portions, covered geographic area portions falling within a coverage area of said network cell, and assigning to each one of the determined covered geographic area portions a respective weight which depends on said respective number of geographic position estimates compared to an overall number of geographic position estimates falling within all said determined covered geographic area portions;
generating a correspondence map establishing a correspondence between said network cells and said geographic zones, said generating the correspondence map comprising, for the considered network cell, calculating a cell weight of the network cell on each geographic zone of said plurality of geographic zones by determining the covered geographic area portions belonging to each of said zones and summing the respective weights of the covered geographic area portions identified as belonging to said each of said geographic zones;
receiving from the mobile communication network and storing in a repository indications of events of interaction between the mobile communication terminals and the network cells of the mobile communication network, each indication of events of interaction including an indication of the network cell in which the event of interaction occurred and a time indication of the occurred event of interaction;
for each of said mobile communication terminals:
extracting from the repository and analysing the respective indications of events of interaction stored in the repository;
for selected couples of indications of events of interactions consecutive in time, extracted from the repository
identifying the respective network cells in which the two events of interaction occurred, wherein the network cell in which the first in time event of interaction of the said couple of indications of events of interactions occurred is considered as origin network cell of a movement and the network cell in which the second in time event of interaction of said couple of indications of events of interactions is considered as destination network cell of a movement, wherein said identifying the respective network cells is based on said indication of the network cell in which the event of interaction occurred included in the indication of events of interaction stored in the repository;
identifying as origin geographic zones of said plurality of geographic zones where the mobile communication terminal was located when the first in time event of interaction of the couple occurred those geographic zones in respect of which the cell weight of the network cell associated with the first in time event of interaction of said couple is greater than a predetermined minimum weight;
identifying as destination geographic zones of said plurality of geographic zones where the mobile communication terminal was located when the second in time event of interaction of the couple occurred those geographic zones in respect of which the cell weight of the network cell associated with the second in time event of interaction of said couple is greater than a predetermined minimum weight,
assigning to each movement from one of the identified origin geographic zones to one of the identified destination geographic zones a respective movement weight calculated as a function of the weight of the origin network cell on said origin geographic zone and of the weight of the destination network cell on said destination geographic zone;
assigning to the entry of the Origin-Destination matrix corresponding to said one of the origin geographic zones and said one of the destination geographic zones a value determined on the basis of said movement weight, and
providing said Origin-Destination matrices in output from said data processing system for the use, by a user of the data processing system, for estimating movements, in a geographic area of interest, of physical entities.
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