The outbreak threshold of information diffusion over social–physical networks

Abstract

Cyber–Physical–Social System (CPSS) will be the foundation of intelligent enterprise and intelligent management in the future industrial system. As an important part of CPSS, social–physical networks, which are emerging through coupling social networks with physical networks, could facilitate information diffusion. To better characterize the process of information diffusion over social–physical networks, a coupled model, which incorporates social behavior spread and multimedia data transmission, is proposed and analyzed. In particular, the effective outbreak threshold of multimedia transmission is analytically derived. By theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, it is demonstrated that (a) social behavior spread cannot alter the effective outbreak threshold of multimedia data transmission, and (b) there is a mutual influence between social behavior spread and multimedia data transmission. These results would ultimately help to design more advanced, more robust and more effective control strategies and applications of information dissemination over multi-layer coupled networks.