Reliability and efficiency of generalized rumor spreading model on complex social networks

Abstract: We introduce the generalized rumor spreading model and investigate some properties of this model on different complex social networks. Despite pervious rumor models that both the spreader-spreader ($SS$) and the spreader-stifler ($SR$) interactions have the same rate $\alpha$, we define $\alpha^{(1)}$ and $\alpha^{(2)}$ for $SS$ and $SR$ interactions, respectively. The effect of variation of $\alpha^{(1)}$ and $\alpha^{(2)}$ on the final density of stiflers is investigated. Furthermore, the influence of the topological structure of the network in rumor spreading is studied by analyzing the behavior of several global parameters such as reliability and efficiency. Our results show that while networks with homogeneous connectivity patterns reach a higher reliability, scale-free topologies need a less time to reach a steady state with respect the rumor.