Mobile device-based cellular network coverage analysis using crowd sourcing

This paper presents a novel approach to cellular network coverage analysis and demonstrates the capabilities of a prototype system. Location specific network measurements are obtained from consumer mobile devices within the network. Crowd sourcing is used to generate a sufficiently large dataset of measurements. By visualising these measurements in a location-based context, this system can be used to produce high accuracy network coverage maps, improve the identification of cell boundaries, observe detailed cell level measurements and analyse the dynamic characteristics of a cellular network.