Observer Design for Information Diffusion in OSN Modeled by PDEs

Abstract

The process of information diffusion through online social networks (OSNs) (e.g., Facebook, QQ, Twitter) gained much importance during the last few years because of its enhanced role on our lives from social interaction to socio-economic, security and health etc. In this paper a partial differential equation (PDEs) based observer is designed by backstepping approach to estimate the state of information diffusion through online social networks. The designed observer works on the proposed new concept of information diffusion influence factors, where the diffusion process of information through OSNs is not only depends on time but also on distance (friendship hops). The flow of information diffusion among different users is found to be cascade in nature with varying rate based on user to user interactions. The objective of this paper is to have a better understanding with the growth rate of information diffusion through OSNs.