Social storage systems [1]–[3] are becoming increasingly popular compared to the existing data backup systems like local, centralized and P2P systems. An endogenously built symmetric social storage model and its aspects like the utility of each agent, bilateral stability, contentment, and efficiency have been extensively discussed in [4]. We include heterogeneity in this model by using the concept of Social Range Matrix from [5]. Now, each agent is concerned about its perceived utility, which is a linear combination of its utility as well as others utilities (depending upon whether the pair are friends, enemies or do not care about each other). We derive conditions when two agents may want to add or delete a link, and provide an algorithm that checks if a bilaterally stable network is possible or not. Finally, we take some special Social Range Matrices and prove that under certain conditions on network parameters, a bilaterally stable network is unique.

Nagarajan Krishnamurthy

Operation Management and Quantitative Techniques

Harshit Jain

Guduru Sai Teja

Pramod Mane

Kapil Ahuja

IIM Indore seeks to be a contextually-relevant business school with world-class academic standards that develops socially-conscious managers, leaders and entrepreneurs. IIM Indore is committed to: Excellence in management education, research, and training, Use of contemporary participant-centric pedagogies and teaching methods, A presence in emerging segments of management education.

IIM Indore

Data backup network formation with heterogeneous agents: (Extended abstract)

2018 10th International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN)

Social storage systems are a good alternative to existing data backup systems of local, centralized, and P2P backup. Till date, researchers have mostly focussed on either building such systems by using existing underlying social networks (exogenously built) or on studying quality of service related issues. In this paper, we look at two untouched aspects of social storage systems. One aspect involves modelling social storage as an endogenous social network, where agents themselves decide with whom they want to build data backup relation, which is more intuitive than exogenous social networks. The second aspect involves studying the stability of social storage systems, which would help reduce maintenance costs and further, help build efficient as well as contented networks. We have a four fold contribution that covers the above two aspects. We, first, model the social storage system as a strategic network formation game. We define the utility of each agent in the network under two different frameworks, one where the cost to add and maintain links is considered in the utility function and the other where budget constraints are considered. In the context of social storage and social cloud computing, these utility functions are the first of its kind, and we use them to define and analyse the social storage network game. Second, we propose the concept of bilateral stability which refines the pairwise stability concept defined by Jackson and Wolinsky (J Econ Theory 71(1):44–74, 1996), by requiring mutual consent for both addition and deletion of links, as compared to mutual consent just for link addition. Mutual consent for link deletion is especially important in the social storage setting. The notion of bilateral stability subsumes the bilateral equilibrium definition of Goyal and Vega-Redondo (J Econ Theory 137(1):460–492, 2007). Third, we prove necessary and the sufficient conditions for bilateral stability of social storage networks. For symmetric social storage networks, we prove that there exists a unique neighborhood size, independent of the number of agents (for all non-trivial cases), where no pair of agents has any incentive to increase or decrease their neighborhood size. We call this neighborhood size as the stability point. Fourth, given the number of agents and other parameters, we discuss which bilaterally stable networks would evolve and also discuss which of these stable networks are efficient—that is, stable networks with maximum sum of utilities of all agents. We also discuss ways to build contented networks, where each agent achieves the maximum possible utility.

Fulltext

Annals of Operations Research

Stability, efficiency, and contentedness of social storage networks

Social Clouds have been gaining importance because of their potential for efficient and stable resource sharing without any (monetary) cost implications . There is a need, however, to look at how a social structure or relationship evolves to build a Social Cloud (by identifying factors that affect the social structure) and how social structure impacts individual resource sharing behavior. This paper presents a pairwise resource (or pairwise service) sharing social network model to explore the interdependence between social structure and resource (service) availability for an individual user or player. The paper also investigates effects of social structure on individual resource availability. Further, the paper analyzes positive and negative externalities, and aims to characterize stable social clouds.

Journal	Data powered by Typeset2018 10th International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN)
Publisher	Data powered by TypesetIEEE Conferences
Open Access	No