Forensic Tracking and Mobility Prediction in Vehicular Networks

Abstract

Most contemporary tracking applications consider an online approach where the target is tracked in real time. In criminal investigations, however, it is often the case that only offline tracking is possible, i.e., tracking takes place after the fact. In offline tracking, given an incomplete trace of a target, the task is to reconstruct the missing parts and obtain the full trace. The proliferation of modern transportation systems means that a targeted entity is likely to use multiple modes of transportation. This paper introduces a class of mobility models tailored for forensic analysis. The mobility models are used to construct a multi-modal forensic tracking system that can reconstruct a complete trace of a target. Theoretical analysis of the reconstruction algorithm demonstrates that it is both complete and optimal.