Analytical model for epidemic information dissemination in mobile social networks with a novel selfishness division

With the prosperity of smartphone markets, mobile social networks (MSNs) attract much attention. In MSNs, information can be shared among users through their opportunistic contacts. The information forwarding mode needs mobile users to work in a cooperative and altruistic way. However, in the real world, most of users are not willing to forward information because of their selfishness. In this paper, we firstly divide selfishness into two new types: weak selfishness and extreme selfishness. Then we develop an analytical model to evaluate the influence of selfish behavior on the information dissemination process in the MSNs. Numerical results demonstrate weak selfishness and extreme selfishness hinder information dissemination. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.