Viral network fundas
My research deals with viral networks. A good example of viral networks is Skype.
Skype is a peer to peer system. A peer to peer system is defined on their website, as:
A true P2P system, in our opinion, is one where all nodes in a network join together dynamically to participate in traffic routing-, processing- and bandwidth intensive tasks that would otherwise be handled by central servers.
Skype is also scalable. Interactions with friends and colleagues give me the impression that the number of Skype users is growing exponentially. This hasn’t disturbed the quality of communication at all. Scalability is a key attribute of a viral network. In non-geeky language, scalability means that the system works fine when it scales, that is increases in numbers. In this case, scaling would mean working fine as number of users keeps going up.
I’m interested in viral networks that use radio for communication, or viral wireless networks. In such a network, users use signals of lesser strength, so that there is lesser interference to other users. One way to do this, is to use other wireless nodes nearby as relays. A relay is an entity that just accepts a signal and retransmits it.
What happens on doing this is very interesting. The receiver gets the same message from multiple nodes, who relay the message, in addition to getting it from the sender. So it can compare them, and pick the best one. It does by taking some sort of a weighted average of the signals. Now the availability of all these messages actually makes it easier to detect signals so that even if you send a signal with lower energy, it will get detected correctly. There is a limit to’lower’ here though. Still, the lowering is meaningful, and helps because sending signals of lesser power means you will disturb other users less, for whom your signal is just noise, unless s/he has a special interest in it 
.
Reed’s law says that the value of a network increases exponentially with the size of a network. The important point however, is that its value lies in the ability of nodes to form subgroups. This is like saying that if there are 30 people at a club, they will value the club experience much more if they can form different sub-groups there.. The higher the number of sub-groups a person can be part of, the higher will be the value of the club to him/her.
In other words, the value of the network as a whole is dependent on the number of sub-groups that can form in it.
What does this imply for a viral network?
1. A viral wireless network can hep form subgroups. This would involve discovery of partners who are/would form a subgroup. A subgroup basically represents an interest of the participant that is fulfilled. By being a part of different subgroups, one would assume that the participant is able to express his/her different interests and develop it.
2. Compare 2 kinds of parties. First, in which everyone sits around a table and eats and talks. Second, in which people walk, sit and mov around and talk. Obviously, the 2nd senario would result in far more social interaction among the participants, because there is mobility. At a dinner table, you can’t talk to someone who’s sitting far away from you. A potential social networking opportunity is just lost. The end could be anything from admiring someone’s dress, to discussing shoes, to talking about jobs, or asking someone out.
A viral network acts as a mobility facilitator between mobile computer users who share interests. It’s the glue which brings people together. There are endless possibilities of the kinds of groups that it can help form.
A side-consequence of Reed’s law explains why a group which does different sorts of activities is more valued by its members. It actually acts as a proxy for different specialised groups doing each of those tasks. Thus by being a member of sucha group, a person can get multiple needs for expression, interaction and participation fulfilled. A person would value this more. Different members of the group would get their own priority needs fulfilled at some point or the other. So it’s more valuable to the group as a whole.
The focus of my current research is to extend the 2 point transfer of information using intermediate nodes to multiple nodes, so we essentially end up with a network. Now the assumption would be that some of the nodes in the network act as relays, while others work as routers.
Some interesting issues arise:
- What’s the incentive for me to relay messages if I am a node?
- What application could potentially be useful for viral networks?
- How ad-hoc or permanent are the networks?
- How does the relay concept work out for a network? Is it scalable?
- Is the additional usage of battery power by relays justified?
- What applications could be good examples for a viral network thats being built incrementally?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
wow look!