Verification of 3G and 4G received power measurements in a crowdsourcing Android app

Many crowdsourcing Android applications are available for measuring network Key Performance Indicators such as received power, latency, and throughput. The data is useful for end-users, researchers, and Mobile Network Operators, but unfortunately the applications' accuracy are rarely verified. In this paper we verify the crowdsourcing Android application NetMap's ability to measure LTE Reference Signal Received Power by analyzing the Root Mean Squared Error, being 2-3 dB, and cross-correlation coefficient, being above 0.8, with measurements obtained by use of a professional radio network scanner and measurement phones. In addition, the application is applicable, but less accurate, for 3G Received Signal Code Power measurements. The studies are made for various device speeds and in different scenarios including indoor, urban, and highway, where the NetMap application is showed to perform well.