Review and Assessment of Digital Twin-Oriented Social Network Simulators

Wen, J; Gabrys, B; Musial, K

Review and Assessment of Digital Twin-Oriented Social Network Simulators

Wen, J Gabrys, B

Musial, K

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Publisher:: IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: IEEE Access, 2023, 11, pp. 97503-97521
Issue Date:: 2023-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Wen, J
dc.contributor.author	Gabrys, B https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0790-2846
dc.contributor.author	Musial, K
dc.date.accessioned	2024-01-19T03:42:23Z
dc.date.available	2024-01-19T03:42:23Z
dc.date.issued	2023-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	IEEE Access, 2023, 11, pp. 97503-97521
dc.identifier.issn	2169-3536
dc.identifier.issn	2169-3536
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/174798
dc.description.abstract	The ability to faithfully represent real social networks is critical from the perspective of testing various what-if scenarios which are not feasible to be implemented in a real system as the system's state would be irreversibly changed. High fidelity simulators allow one to investigate the consequences of different actions before introducing them to the real system. For example, in the context of social systems, an accurate social network simulator can be a powerful tool used to guide policy makers, help companies plan their advertising campaigns or authorities to analyse fake news spread. In this study we explore different Social Network Simulators (SNSs) and assess to what extent they are able to mimic the real social networks. We conduct a critical review and assessment of existing Social Network Simulators under the Digital Twin-Oriented Modelling framework proposed in our previous study. We subsequently extend one of the most promising simulators from the evaluated ones, to facilitate generation of social networks of varied structural complexity levels. This extension brings us one step closer to a Digital Twin Oriented SNS (DT Oriented SNS). We also propose an approach to assess the similarity between real and simulated networks with the composite performance indexes based on both global and local structural measures, while taking runtime of the simulator as an indicator of its efficiency. We illustrate various characteristics of the proposed DT Oriented SNS using a well known Karate Club network as an example. While not considered to be of sufficient complexity, the simulator is intended as one of the first steps on a journey towards building a Digital Twin of a social network that perfectly mimics the reality.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
dc.relation	http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101087
dc.relation.ispartof	IEEE Access
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3312129
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	08 Information and Computing Sciences, 09 Engineering, 10 Technology
dc.subject.classification	40 Engineering
dc.subject.classification	46 Information and computing sciences
dc.title	Review and Assessment of Digital Twin-Oriented Social Network Simulators
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	11
utslib.for	08 Information and Computing Sciences
utslib.for	09 Engineering
utslib.for	10 Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CHT - Health Technologies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - AAI - Advanced Analytics Institute Research Centre
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Computer Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Centre for Health Technologies (CHT)
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2024-01-19T03:42:20Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	11

Abstract:

The ability to faithfully represent real social networks is critical from the perspective of testing various what-if scenarios which are not feasible to be implemented in a real system as the system's state would be irreversibly changed. High fidelity simulators allow one to investigate the consequences of different actions before introducing them to the real system. For example, in the context of social systems, an accurate social network simulator can be a powerful tool used to guide policy makers, help companies plan their advertising campaigns or authorities to analyse fake news spread. In this study we explore different Social Network Simulators (SNSs) and assess to what extent they are able to mimic the real social networks. We conduct a critical review and assessment of existing Social Network Simulators under the Digital Twin-Oriented Modelling framework proposed in our previous study. We subsequently extend one of the most promising simulators from the evaluated ones, to facilitate generation of social networks of varied structural complexity levels. This extension brings us one step closer to a Digital Twin Oriented SNS (DT Oriented SNS). We also propose an approach to assess the similarity between real and simulated networks with the composite performance indexes based on both global and local structural measures, while taking runtime of the simulator as an indicator of its efficiency. We illustrate various characteristics of the proposed DT Oriented SNS using a well known Karate Club network as an example. While not considered to be of sufficient complexity, the simulator is intended as one of the first steps on a journey towards building a Digital Twin of a social network that perfectly mimics the reality.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/174798