Solving the Traveling Together Challenge with Trajectory Geo-temporal Indexing

Featuring a step-by-step code sample in Amazon Athena

Problem Statement. Traveling together challenge

In the geospatial data analysis area there is an interesting challenge often called “Traveling together”. It involves identifying patterns where two or more individuals move or travel in close proximity to each other over the same route, within a specific timeframe. This challenge is common in the analysis of movement data, which might come from various sources such as GPS trackers, mobile phones, vehicle telemetry systems, etc.

Key Aspects of the Challenge:

• Data Volume and Complexity: Geospatial datasets, especially those tracking movement over time, can be massive and complex.
• Temporal Synchronization: Entities considered to be traveling together must have their movements synchronized in time.
• Spatial Proximity: Defining “together” requires setting thresholds for spatial proximity.

Tools on the market

Currently, there are no tools on the market that can address this challenge out of the box. However, there are many mature database engines, both relational and NoSQL, that offer support for geospatial data types, indexes, and built-in functions. These features are utilized to optimize queries performing operations such as…