Method and system for a real-time counting of a number of persons in a crowd by means of aggregated data of a telecommunication network

A method of estimating a number of persons gathering at an Area of Interest during a time interval on a day, wherein the Area of Interest is defined by an Area of Interest center and an Area of Interest radius and is covered by a mobile telecommunication network including a plurality of communication stations each of which is configured to manage communications of user equipment in one or more served areas in a covered geographic region over which the mobile telecommunication network provides services, the method comprising:

• a) subdividing the covered geographic region in a plurality of surface elements corresponding to cells of the mobile telecommunication network;
• b) defining a plurality of calculated radius values of the Area of interest radius, and, for each calculated radius value:
• c) identifying a number of relevant surface elements of the covered geographic region within the Area of interest;
• d) computing a first number of User Equipment served by the mobile communication network during the time interval on the day within the Area of Interest based on aggregated data indicating a ratio between traffic load and average user equipment traffic load of the mobile communication network;
• e) computing a second number of User Equipment served by the mobile communication network during the time interval for each day of a predetermined number of previous days preceding the day within the Area of Interest based on the aggregated data;
• f) combining the first number of User Equipment and the second numbers of User Equipment to obtain a statistical quantity;
• g) normalizing the statistical quantity to obtain a normalized statistical quantity, the statistical quantity being normalized with respect to the radii of the relevant served areas;
• h) computing an optimum radius value of the Area of Interest radius as an average of the calculated radius values weighted by the normalized statistical quantity;
• i) estimating the number of persons gathering within the Area of Interest having the Area of Interest radius equal to the optimum radius value.