Traffic congestion estimation service exploiting mobile assisted positioning schemes in GSM networks

Abstract To relief overstressed roadways, intelligent transport systems are required, which are able to evaluate the traffic situation in near real time, and provide traffic information to road users. Conventional solutions use limited and cost intensive installations, embedded in the roadways. Other techniques, without those installations are less accurate. An accurate and reliable low cost solution uses floating cellular data, collected from mobile subscribers. This information can be utilized to estimate the locations and velocities of the subscribers' vehicles, and in turn becomes the basis for traffic congestion estimations. In this paper, the authors first present means to increase the accuracy of known cellular positioning techniques, and introduce a traffic congestion estimation service application, exploiting the increased localization accuracy.