Sensing WiFi packets in the air: practicality and implications in urban mobility monitoring

Abstract

Mobile sensing systems employ various sensors in smartphones to extract human-related information. As the demand for sensing systems increases, a more effective mechanism is required to sense information about human life. In this paper, we present a systematic study on the feasibility and gaining properties of a crowdsensing system that primarily concerns sensing WiFi packets in the air. We propose that this method is effective for estimating urban mobility by using only a small number of participants. During a seven-week deployment, we collected smartphone sensor data, including approximately four million WiFi packets from more than 130,000 unique devices in a city. Our analysis of this dataset examines core issues in urban mobility monitoring, including feasibility, spatio-temporal coverage, scalability, and threats to privacy. Collectively, our findings provide valuable insights to guide the development of new mobile sensing systems for urban life monitoring.