ABSTRACT
The non-trivial and sometimes rather desired properties of (online) social networks have attracted the interest of the research community (Chapter 5), eventually rendering (online) social networks a new, interesting and evolving research field. Such research interest in the properties and dynamic behavior of social networks is dictated by the fact that some of their salient features can also be observed, exploited, or even incorporated in other more complex network contexts. The most typical example of the latter is the fact that, due to the small-world phenomenon, the communication through a social network can be expedited, as the small-world shortcuts may contract the average distance1 separating two nodes. In other words, the communication speed is a salient characteristic of social networks and by mimicking the way it is achieved in a social network context, it can be incorporated in other network types as well. Intuitively, by introducing appropriate shortcuts in another network class, one can obtain a network structure and function similar to the small-world phenomenon and this makes it possible to reduce the distance between a communicating pair and leads to an increase of the speed of communication, without modifying the initial character of the network. Many works in the past have established themselves in the bibliography for attempting to apply social network concepts in order to make more efficient the function of various wired or wireless networks. This topic will also be the main focus and objective of the current chapter.
