Developing an Empirical Trajectory Model Using GPS Information

Trajectory models are of great importance in the area of wireless communications. Traffic offering, handover management, adaptive routing control, localization, and registration are only a few examples of challenges caused by the mobility of users.  Recently, a highly flexible trajectory model based on the primitives of Brownian fields (TramBrown) was proposed in [1] and [2]. In this project, an empirical trajectory model for drifted motions was developed using global positioning system (GPS) data of real life user traces drifting to a particular target point or a zone. The main goal was to verify the spatial properties of TramBrown with empirical data collected from measurement campaigns.

The location coordinates of the mobile user were recorded using Garmin Oregon GPS measuring device. The recorded datasets were processed to compute the total travelling length and the angle-of-motion (AOM) along the drifted trajectory. It is shown that the probability density function (PDF) of the total travelling length follows approximately the lognormal distribution and the PDF of the AOM exhibits a non-uniform distribution that can be approximated by the Gaussian distribution. The obtained results are in line with the theoretical findings in [2] and the empirical ones in [3]. It can be concluded that TramBrown is a robust trajectory model to be used in analyzing mobile communications systems, as well as in other tracking and localization applications.

The project findings were disseminated in form of the following paper (already accepted and presented):

K. Mendis and A. Borhani, "A Measurement-Based Trajectory Model for Drifted Motions Towards a Target Zone", IEEE Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments Conference, IEEE WiSEE'16, RWTH Aachen, Germany, Sept. 2016.

The IEEE WiSEE’16 conference brought together investigators from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and other space agencies, along with aerospace and space defense industries and academic researchers, in an effort to understand and solve the emerging problems facing wireless sensing and communication in space and related extreme environments. Our paper was presented orally in the “Localization, Detection and Tracking Methods” track and received a great attention.  

References:

[1] A. Borhani and M. Patzold, “A highly flexible trajectory model based on the primitives of Brownian fields—part I: Fundamental principles and implementation aspects,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 770–780, Feb. 2015. 

[2] A. Borhani and M. Patzold, “A highly flexible trajectory model based on the primitives of Brownian fields—part II: Analysis of the statistical properties,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 247–257, Jan. 2016.

[3] M. Kim, D. Kotz, and S. Kim, “Extracting a mobility model from real user traces,” in Proc. 25th INFOCOM, 2006, pp. 1–13.