Delay Tolerant Networks by Longxiang Gao Shui Yu Tom H. Luan & Wanlei Zhou

Author:Longxiang Gao, Shui Yu, Tom H. Luan & Wanlei Zhou
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

4.1 Background

In this background section, social concepts used for this chapter are introduced firstly, which are homophily, small world theory and key paths. After that, a real trace file in DTNs is analysed to study the impact and importance of social characteristics in DTNs.

4.1.1 Social Concepts

4.1.1.1 Homophily

Similar characteristics between individuals generally result in a bond between two people. The saying “birds of a feather flock together” suggests [4] people with different characteristics, such as gender, age or educational background tend to have very different qualities. Alternatively, people with similar interests, backgrounds or beliefs tend to form stronger relationships than those with dissimilar ones [5]. Individuals with less in common are less likely to develop or maintain a strong tie, and therefore a pathway of communication between them will not be as strong. This phenomenon, known as homophily [4], suggests contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than dissimilar people and their social characteristics are translated into distance. For example, people with a common interest may belong to the same social club and physical space at the same time.

The structure of a social network is greatly influenced by this principle. Individuals form groups or cliques in a given social network largely depending on their shared attributes. These attributes include similar interests, backgrounds, socioeconomic status, family ties, generation, age, affiliation, career, education, etc. Because such similarities connect (and disconnect) nodes in a powerful way, it dictates the flow of information in a given social network. Therefore efficient message pathways with fewer hops are inevitably created and reused if deemed to be dependable over time.

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