Mining the Air -- for Research in Social Science and Networking Measurement

TL;DR

This paper discusses how smartphone apps and wireless data advancements enable detailed monitoring of human mobility and activity, providing valuable data for social science, government, and telecom research.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of leveraging smartphone app data and evolving wireless protocols as a new resource for social science and networking research.

Findings

Smartphone apps can effectively monitor human mobility and activity.

Wireless data improvements expand the scope and accuracy of location measurement.

App activity data offers unbiased insights for social and network research.

Abstract

Smartphone apps provide a vitally important opportunity for monitoring human mobility, human experience of ubiquitous information aids, and human activity in our increasingly well-instrumented spaces. As wireless data capabilities move steadily up in performance, from 2&3G to 4G (today's LTE) and 5G, it has become more important to measure human activity in this connected world from the phones themselves. The newer protocols serve larger areas than ever before and a wider range of data, not just voice calls, so only the phone can accurately measure its location. Access to the application activity permits not only monitoring the performance and spatial coverage with which the users are served, but as a crowd-sourced, unbiased background source of input on all these subjects, becomes a uniquely valuable resource for input to social science and government as well as telecom providers