Characterizing and modeling user mobility in a cellular data network

The demand for cellular data networks is expected to increase with 3G and beyond technologies accompanied by high-bandwidth consumer services, such as wireless video and camera phones. User mobility affects quality of service, and makes capacity planning more difficult. This paper presents an analysis of user mobility patterns based on data traffic traces from a major regional CDMA2000 cellular network. We find low overall mobility in the network, power-law characteristics in user mobility profiles, and weak correlations between call activity and mobility levels for individual users. We also find that users concentrate their activity in a "home cell" with frequent shorter trips to other locations in the network. Based on the empirical findings, we develop and parameterize a model of cellular data user mobility and show its practical use in simulation.