Analysis of information dissemination through direct communication in a moving crowd

Abstract New generation mobile communication protocols, such as the 5G standards, allow direct communication between devices. This allows to disseminate information directly in a moving crowd. In a safety concept, this information could be used to redirect pedestrians away from danger. We couple state-of-the-art computer models of pedestrian motion and mobile device-to-device communication to build a model of this complex socio-technical system. The model captures the interplay between information dissemination and human behavior. We further harness methods of uncertainty quantification to pinpoint the parameters that most influence the systems functionality for a scenario where pedestrians are redirected. We bundle successful analysis methods to suggest a procedure for future studies. We find that, in our scenario, there are rare cases of information dissemination delayed by shadowing and additional network load from apps, where agents cannot be redirected in time. Our simulation tools and methodology can help to detect such problems and serve as a basis to investigate more complex scenarios and rerouting strategies.