DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/197
title: Peaks in Internet traffic: Analysis of data demand through time-use
      diaries and Android device-use

description: This dataset concerns the timing of Internet traffic associated with
      everyday activities. It provides evidence about patterns of data demand
      from two different sources: time-use diaries and analysis of data usage by
      Android smartphones and tablets. 1. Time-use diaries File:
      Diaries_TVAndTimeOnline This is a summarised record produced from 16
      time-use diaries completed by volunteers in the UK, for one week falling
      sometime between July and October 2016 (not the same week). The file
      summarises the time of day (averaged across the week) when three
      activities were recorded: 'TV watching', 'online
      activities’ conducted anywhere, and those ‘online activities’ conducted at
      home. This was recorded by the diarist in two ways: 1) For two days of the
      week, diarists recorded all their activities in their own words on a
      schedule sheet. Categories were assigned for each half hour interval by
      the analyst based on what diarists had written. 2) For the other five days
      of the week, diarists recorded their activities by marking the relevant
      times in a table for when they were online, watching TV, and at home. A
      summary of the ages, working and living status of the participants is
      given on the notes page. 2. Smartphone and tablet data usage File:
      DeviceAnalyzer_SmartphoneTabletData This is a summary of the results of a
      secondary analysis conducted, on a pre-existing data set generated by the
      ordinary use of smartphones and tablets. The data was collected through an
      Android application, Device Analyzer, available on the Google Play store
      which captures usage statistics about the device in the background, as it
      is used by volunteers who have installed the app. This includes volumes of
      data used by particular applications. The application was designed by
      researchers at Cambridge University who curate and share data with other
      researchers, where volunteers have given their permission for this. More
      information and instructions on how to access the Device Analyzer dataset
      are provided here: https://deviceanalyzer.cl.cam.ac.uk/. We analysed a
      subset of this data where: (1) logs consisted of at least 14 days with the
      latest data collected on or after 1st January 2014 up until 21 September
      2016, (2) had a network-based location in the UK or Ireland for at least
      half of the contribution days, and (3) used apps or demanded data during
      their logging period. This resulted in 398 devices. Due to anonymity
      restrictions associated with this dataset, we do not know the age, gender
      or device make-up of this sample; all those who participated indicate they
      were over 18 years old. The file included here has been produced from
      scripts written by one of the authors and run on the dataset in
      co-ordination with researchers at Cambridge University. It presents the
      hourly distribution of data demanded by the device (upload and download)
      by day of the week and across app categories (as an average of those
      devices on which apps within each category were used). The number of
      devices active within the category is provided in brackets next to each
      category name.