Network traffic forecasting for non-ticketed events

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• estimating a number of people expected to attend a non-ticketed event, based on electronic data including social media postings, wherein the estimating the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event comprises:
• generating a popularity score for the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on the social media postings, wherein the popularity score is calculated as a number of mentions of the non-ticketed event in the social, media postings within a defined window of time divided by a number of mentions of the non-ticketed event in the social media postings that originate at a geographic location of the non-ticketed event;
• and
• calculating the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event as the popularity score multiplied by a maximum capacity of the non-ticketed event;
• estimating a per-person amount of network traffic expected to be generated on a communications network during the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on historical per-person network traffic statistics for a historical event of a similar type to the non-ticketed event;
• calculating an amount of total network traffic expected to be generated during the non-ticketed event, based at least on the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event and the per-person amount of network traffic;
• and
• implementing a modification to an infrastructure of the communications network in the geographic location of the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on the amount of total network traffic expected to be generated during the non-ticketed event.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• estimating a number of people expected to attend a non-ticketed event, based on electronic data including social media postings, wherein the estimating the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event comprises:
• generating a popularity score for the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on the social media postings, wherein the popularity score is calculated as a number of mentions of the non-ticketed event in the social media postings within a defined window of time divided by a number of mentions of the non-ticketed event in the social media postings that originate at a geographic location of the non-ticketed event;
• and
• calculating the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event as the popularity score multiplied by a maximum capacity of the non-ticketed event;
• estimating a per-person amount of network traffic expected to be generated on a communications network during the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on historical per-person network traffic statistics for a historical event of a similar type to the non-ticketed event;
• calculating an amount of total network traffic expected to be generated during the non-ticketed event, based at least on the number of people expected to attend the non-ticketed event and the per-person amount of network traffic;
• and
• implementing a modification to an infrastructure of the communications network in the geographic location of the non-ticketed event, based at least in part on the amount of total network traffic expected to be generated during the non-ticketed event.