An agent-based model for simultaneous phone and SMS traffic over time

Abstract

The present work describes a utility-based, multi-agent, dynamic network model of phone call and SMS traffic in a population. The simulation is novel in its ability to generate interactions from both an asymmetric and a symmetric media simultaneously. Within the model, we develop and test a simple extension to the theory of media multiplexity, a well-known theory of how humans use the communication media available to them with different alters (friends). Model output qualitatively matches patterns in real data at the network-level and with respect to how humans use SMS and voice calls with different alters and thus shows general support for our theoretical claim. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.