A probabilistic study of map matching for transportation applications

Map matching is an important part of map routing in modern transportation applications. In the map matching process, the effect of two main components, i.e. (i) the features of road networks, and (ii) the design aspects of geolocation services, is still not well understood. In this paper, using a combination of probabilistic analysis and simulations we study the effects of the above factors on the map matching process. Using a Maximum Aposteriori Probability (MAP) estimator, we offer some design guidelines that could improve the performance of map matching algorithms.