Example Big-Data Analyses

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is the agency responsible for licensing and regulating the city's taxis, limousines, commuter vans, and para-transit vehicles.  Policy and Traffic researchers use trip data generated by these vehicles to observe changing trends and to inform decision-makers in the city.

The TLC trip data covers all trips from 2009 through 2022 and exceeds 1.5 billion trips.  It is used by researchers and educators to demonstrate the possibilities of big data for real-world analytics.  Examples of work can be found at Medium and GitHub, and the source data is available at the NYC TLC page.

Click here to see a demonstration of trip data created with the Better World Analytics Blazar platform after contacting us for an access password.

Worldwide telecommunications regulators are tasked with the assignment of radio spectrum to providers with the goal of optimally serving the needs of the populace.  Following allocation, the regulators ask the operators to provide updates on the use of the spectrum, coverage of the licensed areas, and sometimes performance metrics on the services provided to the end users.

Minimization of Drive Test is a recent addition to the 3GPP standards for cellular network software, providing a mechanism for all mobile units to provide key data on the coverage, quality, and performance of the wireless network.  This data is superior to other data collection techniques (including drive-test) since it measures mobiles where they are being used, at the time they are being used, and for the duration of use.

Click here to see a demonstration of synthesized network performance data created with the Better World Analytics Blazar platform after contacting us for an access password.

Many of the bands allocated to wireless networks were previously used for other systems.  While regulators provide mechanisms for prior users to exit bands now allocated to cellular networks, there are often cases when the spectrum is not entirely clear.

One method to check spectrum prior to network launch is to drive test the license geography with a spectrum analyzer or RF scanner in spectrum analysis mode.  This type of collection typically provides measurements of signals found every 40kHz, 80kHz, or 120kHz across the allocated uplink and downlink bands, typically 5MHz, 10MHz, or 20MHz, and multiple times per second.  The resulting data set can be GB/hour or larger and is ideal for big-data analytics.

Click here to see a demonstration of spectrum measurement data created with the Better World Analytics Blazar platform after contacting us for an access password.

An important component of on-demand package delivery, emergency medical transportation, and autonomous vehicle routing is the underlying traffic conditions in the area.

Many government and private entities collect data that can be merged to create big-data sources used to report on current conditions, and used to statistically model future conditions as well.  Examples of this include active construction databases, live traffic camera feeds, and mobile crowdsource and mobile network data.

Click here to see a demonstration of real-time traffic congestion data created with the Better World Analytics Blazar platform after contacting us for an access password.

The most accurate wireless prediction models are tuned with measured data to create optimized models per-sector or per-morphology.   But the key to collecting good measured data is to know which roads and non-road areas are optimal for the model tuning exercise. 

Our unique approach to this problem uses Vonori cells to identify coverage areas of the network.  These cells are then broken into bins where measurement is (and is not) possible on roads.  Once the valid road bins are established, a route planner optimizes the measurement campaign into manageable pieces.

Click here to see a demonstration of drive route optimization created with the Better World Analytics Blazar platform after contacting us for an access password.