The Use of Fuzzy Logic in Creating a Visual Data Summary of a Telecom Operator’s Customer Base

Abstract

As pointed out by Zadeh, the mission of fuzzy logic in the era of big data is to create a relevant summary of huge amounts of data and facilitate decision-making. In this study, elements of fuzzy set theory are used to create a visual summary of telecom data, which gives a comprehensive idea concerning the desirability of boosting an operator’s presence in different neighborhoods and regions. The data used for validation cover historical mobility in a region of Sweden during a week. Fuzzy logic allows us to model inherently relative characteristics, such as “a tall man” or “a beautiful woman”, and importantly it also defines “anchors”, the situations (characterized with the value of the membership function for the characteristic) under which the relative notion receives a unique crisp interpretation. We propose color coding of the membership value for the relative notions such as “the desirability of boosting operator’s presence in the neighborhood” and “how well the operator is doing in the region”. The corresponding regions on the map (e.g., postcode zones or larger groupings) are colored in different shades passing from green (1) though yellow (0.5) to red (0). The color hues pass a clear intuitive message making the summary easy to grasp.