Method and system for estimating road traffic

• US 8,340,718 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Colonna, Massimo, Lovisolo, Piero, Parata, Dario
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, WESLEY LEO
• Application Number:
  US12/809,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20100273491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,832 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.1, 455/569.2, 455/575.9, 455/344, 455/345, 340/933, 340/934, 340/909, 340/992, 340/993, 701117-119
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A method of estimating road traffic on a roads network, comprising: receiving information from at least one information source, wherein the information received from the at least one information source is one among a first information type and a second information type; defining at least two different information processing methods, each one associated with a respective one of said information type; selecting the information processing method based on the available information type and on predefined criteria; and processing with the selected information processing method the corresponding available information type; and providing an estimation of the road traffic based on the result of said processing.

Claims

1. A method of estimating road traffic on a roads network, comprising:

receiving information from a first information source and a second information source, wherein the information received from the first information source and the second information source is one among a first information type and a second information type;

temporarily storing the information received from the first information source and the second information source in a database;

defining at least two different information processing methods, each one associated with a respective one of said information types, wherein at least one of the different information processing methods is associated with a combination of the first and second information types received from the first and second information sources;

storing an identifier of the at least one of the different information processing methods associated with the combination of the first and second information types;

selecting an information processing method of the at least two different information processing methods based on the information type of the received information and on at least one predefined criterion;

processing the received information with the selected information processing method; and

providing an estimation of the road traffic based on the result of said processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first information source includes at least one cellular Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information received from the first information source comprises one or more among:

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and identifiers of the macroareas where each mobile terminal in the list is situated;

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and identifiers of the PLMN cells in which each mobile terminal in the list is situated while making a phone call, or while dispatching a message, or when a handover is performed;

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and indications about the geographical positions within the respective PLMN cells of each mobile terminal in the list, at the time a phone call or a handover are performed; and

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and an indication of a trajectory of each mobile terminal in the list during a phone call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said second information source includes at least one among a manual or automatic vehicles counting system, and a system based on information received from a satellite localization system receiver on-board of at least a subset of circulating vehicles.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said information received from the second information source comprises one or more among:

a list of geographic coordinates of road sections in which manual or automatic vehicles counters are installed, and the number of vehicles counted by each counter in the list, and

a list of vehicles equipped with satellite localization system receivers and indications about a trajectory thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

arranging the information received from the first information source and the information received from the second information source in a matrix form.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different information types received from the first information source are arranged in a matrix column of the matrix form, and the different information types received from the second information source are arranged in a matrix row of the matrix form.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information is arranged in said matrix column or row in order of increasing or decreasing complexity of processing the information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information is based on at least information from a cellular Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and information from a manual or automatic vehicles counting system, and wherein the processing of the information from the cellular PLMN is more complex than the processing of the information from the manual or automatic vehicles counting system.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the identifier of the at least one of the different information processing methods associated with the combination of the first and second information types is stored at an intersection of a matrix row and a matrix column.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one predefined criterion includes at least one of a degree of accuracy of the estimation of the road traffic, an information processing time, the nature of the intended recipient of the estimation of the road traffic, a price paid by the intended recipient of the estimation of the road traffic, and an arbitrary choice.

12. A system for the estimation of road traffic on a roads network, adapted in use to:

receiving information from a first information source and a second information source, wherein the information received from the first information source and the second information source is one among a first information type and a second information type;

temporarily storing the information received from the first information source and the second information source in a database;

defining at least two different information processing methods, each one associated with a respective one of said information types, wherein at least one of the different information processing methods is associated with a combination of the first and second information types received from the first and second information sources;

storing an identifier of the at least one of the different information processing methods associated with the combination of the first and second information types;

selecting an information processing method of the at least two different information processing methods based on the type of information of the received information and on at least one predefined criterion;

processing the received information with the selected information processing method; and

providing an estimation of the road traffic based on the result of said processing.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said first information source includes at least one cellular Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN).

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the information received from the first information source comprises one or more among:

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and identifiers of macroareas where each mobile terminal in the list is situated;

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and identifiers of the PLMN cells in which each mobile terminal in the list is situated while making a phone call, or while dispatching a message, or when a handover is performed;

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and indications about geographical positions within the respective PLMN cells of each mobile terminal in the list, at the time a phone call or a handover are performed; and

a list of mobile terminals attached to the cellular PLMN, and an indication of a trajectory of each mobile terminal in the list during a phone call.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said second information source includes at least one among a manual or automatic vehicles counting system, and a system based on information received from a satellite localization system receiver on-board of at least a subset of circulating vehicles.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said information received from the second information source comprises one or more among:

a list of geographic coordinates of road sections in which manual or automatic vehicles counters are installed, and the number of vehicles counted by each counter in the list, and

a list of vehicles equipped with satellite localization system receivers and indications about a trajectory thereof.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the information received from the first information source and the information received from the second information source are arranged in a matrix form.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the different information types received from the first information source are arranged in a matrix column of the matrix form, and the different information types received from the second information source are arranged in a matrix row of the matrix form.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the information is arranged in said matrix column or row in order of increasing or decreasing complexity of processing the information.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the information is based on at least information from a cellular Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and information from a manual or automatic vehicles counting system, and wherein the processing of the information from the cellular PLMN is more complex than the processing of the information from the manual or automatic vehicles counting system.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the identifier of the at least one of the different information processing methods associated with the combination of the first and second information types is stored at an intersection of a matrix row and a matrix column.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein said at least one predefined criterion includes at least one of a degree of accuracy of the estimation of the road traffic, an information processing time, the nature of the intended recipient of the estimation of the road traffic, a price paid by the intended recipient of the estimation of the road traffic, and an arbitrary choice.