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Evolving Landscape of Cellular Network Traffic

Recent technological advances have resulted in a dramatic change in the market shares of cellular mobile devices. However, little is known about the impact of these changes on the landscape of cellular network traffic. Using anonymized traces from one million cellular subscribers, we conduct a comparative study of the usage characteristics of three different types of mobile devices: feature phones, air cards, and smart phones. Our study covers three aspects: traffic volume in terms of data, voice, and short messages and corresponding temporal fluctuations, applications breakdown in data access, and the presence of malicious traffic. Our study reveals some similarities as well as distinct differences among the three device types. These insights into the modern cellular network traffic could influence how cellular carriers manage and provision their networks.