Vehicle mobility characterization based on measurements and its application to cellular communication systems

Future cellular communication systems will be called upon to provide multim edia services (Mice, data, and video) for various user platforms (pedestria ns, cars, and trains) that have a variety of mobility characteristics. Know ledge of mobility characteristics is essential for planning, designing and operating communication networks. The position data of selected vehicles (t axis) have been measured by using the Global Positioning System at 1-s inte rvals. Those data are used for evaluating mobility characteristics, such as probabilistic distributions of speed, cell dwell time, and cell crossover rate of vehicles, assuming that cells are hypothetically laid over the loci of the vehicles. The cell dwell time of vehicles is found to follow a logn ormal distribution, rather than a conventionally-presumed negative exponent ial distribution. When the holding time distribution and random origination of calls along the loci are assumed, the properties of the cell dwell time and the handoff rate of terminals communicating in the hypothetical cellul ar systems are also estimated from the measured data.