Data Usage in IoT: A Characterization of GTP Tunnels in M2M Mobile Networks

Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices have seen a significant growth in usage and deployment over the last years. Gaining insight into device and data usage behavior exhibited by the participants of mobile networks is elementary for Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) to scale their networks and provide a reliable service. This work aims to make use of its first of a kind dataset, spanning multiple countries and MNOs, to provide a detailed characterization of GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnels and devices. To this end, general statistics are used to describe the observed data traffic focusing on the distribution of the tunnel duration and volume as well as periodic device behavior. An approximate metric is introduced to analyze the periodicity and synchronicity of IoT devices. Lastly, we publish the data investigated in this work and provide a large scale dataset on the data usage behavior of IoT devices to interested researchers.

Automated summary

The usage and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices have seen significant growth in recent years. Understanding device and data usage behavior is crucial for Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to scale their networks and provide reliable service. This study utilizes a unique dataset to characterize GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnels and devices, providing a large-scale dataset on the data usage behavior of IoT devices for interested researchers.