{"id":100546,"date":"2023-10-30T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greyb.com\/?post_type=newsletter&#038;p=100546"},"modified":"2025-10-03T19:27:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:57:35","slug":"hidden-data-patterns","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/greyb.com\/newsletters\/hidden-data-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3GPP Search That Forgot to Ask Better Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wanted to share something interesting our teammate Mahesh found while working on an internal 3GPP search tool.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was a factory worker who was employed to quality test the manufactured parts. His job was simple. He had to use a vernier caliper to measure the diameter of every manufactured part that came out of the assembly line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His instruction was then to record the diameter of every part in a logbook and if it was below 3.00 cm, then reject this part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data he had accumulated over time was once given to a production engineer for analysis. He plotted the distribution and found something remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plot looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"579\" height=\"332\" src=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sketched-bell-curve-showing-missing-section-before-point-t.png\" alt=\"Sketched bell curve showing missing section before point t\" class=\"wp-image-100551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sketched-bell-curve-showing-missing-section-before-point-t.png 579w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sketched-bell-curve-showing-missing-section-before-point-t-300x172.png 300w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sketched-bell-curve-showing-missing-section-before-point-t-150x86.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 579px) 100vw, 579px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sketched bell curve showing missing section before point t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It seemed the machine was producing parts above 3 cm and below 2.95 cm but wasn&#8217;t producing ANY parts between the 2.95 to 3.00 cm range!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, it wasn&#8217;t the case. The machine was working parts of all dimensions, it&#8217;s just that the worker was &#8220;passing&#8221; any parts in the missing range, perhaps thinking &#8220;close enough&#8221; \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most naturally occurring measurements in the real world produce a nice &#8220;bell curve&#8221; when their distribution is plotted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But how is it relevant to us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suppose I want to look for 3GPP documents that talk about a mobile terminal going into standby. And I run this query &#8220;terminal? S stand_by&#8221; (just an example)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I get this distribution in 3GPP search:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"734\" height=\"253\" src=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-sparse-scattered-data-over-time.png\" alt=\"Bar chart showing sparse, scattered data over time\" class=\"wp-image-100552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-sparse-scattered-data-over-time.png 734w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-sparse-scattered-data-over-time-300x103.png 300w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-sparse-scattered-data-over-time-150x52.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 734px) 100vw, 734px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bar chart showing sparse, scattered data over time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You see the problem? This isn&#8217;t a &#8220;natural&#8221; distribution.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is an indication that I have to improve the query to capture all variations of this concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now I also put in the following keywords for standby: <strong>stand_by sleep* inactive hibernate*<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"741\" height=\"251\" src=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-missing-data-between-2.95\u20133.00-cm.png\" alt=\"Bar chart showing missing data between 2.95\u20133.00 cm\" class=\"wp-image-100553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-missing-data-between-2.95\u20133.00-cm.png 741w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-missing-data-between-2.95\u20133.00-cm-300x102.png 300w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-showing-missing-data-between-2.95\u20133.00-cm-150x51.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 741px) 100vw, 741px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bar chart showing missing data between 2.95\u20133.00 cm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Slightly better, but still not there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s also add synonyms for terminal: <strong>terminal? UE? equipment? device? portable? handheld mobile<\/strong> and set a cut-off date of 2019.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"739\" height=\"259\" src=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-with-steep-growth-in-3GPP-data-after-2015.png\" alt=\"Bar chart with steep growth in 3GPP data after 2015\" class=\"wp-image-100554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-with-steep-growth-in-3GPP-data-after-2015.png 739w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-with-steep-growth-in-3GPP-data-after-2015-300x105.png 300w, https:\/\/greyb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bar-chart-with-steep-growth-in-3GPP-data-after-2015-150x53.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 739px) 100vw, 739px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bar chart with steep growth in 3GPP data after 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now we see the &#8220;ebbs and flows&#8221; of this concept as it was discussed in the context of 2G, then 3G, then 4G and 5G.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":55484,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"content-type":"","service_relation":["42062","67390"],"industry_relation":["61081","25806"]},"newsletter_category":[1868,1853],"class_list":["post-100546","newsletter","type-newsletter","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newsletter_category-5g","newsletter_category-ict-telecommunication"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The 3GPP Search That Forgot to Ask Better Questions - GreyB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What if your query was filtering out the insight you needed? 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