Derivation of cell residence times from the counters of mobile telecommunications switches

In mobile telecommunications, the residence times of users at a cell or a location area are an important input parameter for network planning and performance evaluation of a mobile network. However, measurement of cell residence times in a commercially operated mobile network is not trivial, which typically requires tracing the movement of individual users. In this paper, we show how to use the standard counter values (number of handovers and call traffic) measured in a mobile telecommunications network to derive the cell residence times. These counter values can be obtained directly from telecommunications switches. Therefore, we can provide a quick and simple solution to compute cell residence times.