Traffic Pattern IDs Change Between Deliveries in Link-Referenced Relational Format

Product
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Traffic Patterns Product
Format: Link-Referenced Relational Format

Customer Symptom
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A customer observes that the same traffic pattern profile appears in multiple deliveries with identical attribute values and wants to know whether the corresponding pattern_id remains unchanged across deliveries.

Answer
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No. Traffic Pattern IDs (pattern_id) are not stable across different deliveries.

Even when a traffic pattern profile contains exactly the same values in multiple deliveries, the associated pattern_id may differ between versions.

Expected Behavior
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The same traffic pattern content may be assigned a different pattern_id in subsequent deliveries.
pattern_id values should not be used as persistent identifiers across product versions or deliveries.

Root Cause
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Traffic Pattern IDs are generated as part of the delivery/version creation process and are not intended to serve as permanent identifiers across releases. As a result, identical traffic pattern profiles can receive different IDs in different deliveries.

Impact
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Customers who compare deliveries based solely on pattern_id values may incorrectly identify unchanged traffic patterns as new, modified, or removed.

Recommended Action
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Do not rely on pattern_id for cross-version matching or long-term data persistence.
When comparing traffic patterns between deliveries, use the actual profile attributes and content rather than the generated pattern_id.
* Treat pattern_id as a delivery-specific identifier.

Additional Notes
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This behavior is expected and does not indicate a data quality issue. Changes in pattern_id between deliveries can occur even when the underlying traffic pattern profile remains unchanged.

Keywords / Tags
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traffic patterns, traffic pattern id, pattern_id, id stability, link-referenced relational format, relational format, delivery comparison, version comparison, identifier changes, stable identifier, traffic profile, expected behavior, data versioning, HERE Traffic Patterns, cross-delivery matching