Definition
Traffic statistics analyze usage volume. They count how much data an IoT SIM card consumes, by card, project, customer, carrier, time, and similar dimensions. Unlike a traffic alert (a notice beforehand) and traffic billing (receivables and payables), traffic statistics are the look back at usage after it happened.
Core Capabilities
- Multi-dimensional Statistics: Summarizes usage by card, project, customer, carrier, data plan type, and time.
- Trend Analysis: Trends of usage changes over time, supporting daily/weekly/monthly/annual granularity and year-on-year or month-on-month comparisons.
- Overuse Identification: Marks cards that exceed usage after the data plan is used up, supporting traffic billing and data plan optimization.
- Anomaly Detection: Identifies abnormal patterns such as surges or drops in usage, facilitating risk control and operations.
Data Sources and Updates
Traffic statistics data comes from the carrier side, synchronized periodically or in real-time through carrier integration. The platform aggregates by card, data pool, project, card ownership and other dimensions, supporting daily/weekly/monthly/annual granularity. Some carriers support near real-time usage, which can support traffic alerts and dynamic rate limiting; T+1 usage is often used for carrier reconciliation and billing accounting.
Use Cases
Traffic statistics provide the usage data basis for traffic billing and analytical support for data plan optimization. Enterprises can use this information to identify high-usage SIMs, low-usage SIMs, over-limit SIMs, and abnormal SIMs, guiding procurement and data plan design. Operations personnel can analyze project usage trends, channel contributions, and data plan suitability based on statistical reports, supporting traffic data plan iteration and overage billing strategy optimization. In coordination with traffic alerts and overage traffic management, a complete system of proactive warning, ongoing handling, and post-event analysis is established.
Reports and Export
Platforms usually provide traffic statistical reports: summarized by SIM, project, customer, carrier , and time dimensions; supported at daily/weekly/monthly/yearly granularity; and supporting year-on-year and month-on-month comparisons, trend graphs. Reports can be exported to Excel or CSV for further analysis. Advanced analysis can identify dormant SIMs (no usage for long periods), high-usage SIMs, over-limit SIMs, and abnormal SIMs, supporting operational decisions and resource optimization.
Relationship with Reconciliation
Traffic statistics data is an important basis for carrier reconciliation . Platform usage and carrier billing usage need to be regularly checked, and any discrepancies should be investigated (such as synchronization delays or billing rule differences). Reconciliation results can be fed back to the traffic billing module to ensure accurate receivables and payables. Enterprises can optimize traffic data plan design and overage billing strategies based on statistical and reconciliation data, reducing operational costs.
Do not mix statistics with billing usage records
Traffic statistics total usage by card, pool, project, customer, carrier, and time, so the shape of consumption can be seen. They answer “how much was used, and whether it jumped.” They do not directly produce an amount receivable. The data can come from the carrier’s daily file, or from a denser usage query. The two sources cut off at different moments, so the statistic for the same day is allowed to differ from the final usage record. The page should say whether this figure is a live estimate or the finalized figure for the period. Using an estimate to settle, or to prove that the carrier overbilled, treats a normal sync delay as an error.
When the dimension changes, the figures have to stay additive. The sum by card should equal the sum by project. Usage of pool members can be totaled again up to the pool, but the pool’s quota must not be mistaken for usage already consumed. Silent cards have to appear in the denominator. Counting only cards that have traffic makes average usage too high, and purchasing then overestimates the tier. When time rolls from day to month, summarize again by the month the usage record belongs to. Do not simply add the daily displayed values, or the rounding remainder of each day enters the monthly report.
How to separate an anomaly from an ordinary peak
A sudden rise in usage is not necessarily a fault. Shared devices coming online together on a weekend, a fleet crossing provinces, and a concentrated firmware upgrade all form a peak. An anomaly rule needs at least a baseline to compare against: against that card’s own recent level, or against similar cards in the same project. With only an absolute threshold, a high-traffic device alerts every day and a low-traffic sensor never alerts. A sudden drop has to exclude cards already suspended, already expired, and devices that are powered off. Otherwise operations treats a normal suspension as a link failure.
The statistics can point out which cards stay far below the plan tier for a long time, and which cards run over quota for several cycles in a row, as a clue for a tier change. The tier change still has to go through a plan change. The report must not change the quota directly. SimtoLink’s traffic statistics observe usage by card and by project. Finalized figures are then handed to billing and reconciliation. The difference between the two sets of numbers is explained by the sync point.
Keep upgrade and heartbeat traffic out of business usage
Firmware upgrades, log uploads, and keepalive heartbeats all produce traffic, and they can look like a usage anomaly. If statistics can be split by access point or by business type, maintenance traffic and business traffic should be totaled separately. If they cannot be split, at least mark the upgrade window by project. A spike inside the window does not raise an anomaly. The same spike outside the window still alerts. Treating every spike as a fault buries operations under the upgrade plan. Ignoring every spike lets a card that is truly abnormal pass. SimtoLink usage statistics keep an estimate and a finalized figure. The upgrade window affects only the alert. It does not affect the final usage record or billing.