|   | CMU-ISRI-05-109 Institute for Software Research International
 School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
 
    
     
 CMU-ISRI-05-109
 
A Formal Characterization of Cellular Networks 
Terrill L. Frantz, Kathleen M. Carley 
September 2005  
Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational SystemsCASOS Technical Report
 
CMU-ISRI-05-109.pdf
 
Keywords: Social network, cellular network, cell, cell-core, 
k-cell, covert network We present precise and explicit, definitions and descriptions of pertinent 
terms and constructs related to a specific type of network topology -- the 
cellular network. First, we clarify the construct of a cell and 
establish the concept of a cell-core and cell-periphery; 
next, we present details of the broader, cellular network. Further, 
we introduce the notion of a k-cell subgraph construct. Throughout the
report, we introduce several supplementary terms related to these concepts. 
The terminology and formalization we present can be effectively utilized 
when conversing about real-world social networks, but may be essential 
as guidelines when constructing cellular social-networks for virtual 
experiments. Increasingly, the network form referred to as "cellular" is 
appearing in empirical social-network studies and is being applied in 
virtual experiments of social-networks. The presence of a cellular 
network is particularly prominent in research pertaining to covert 
and terrorist organizations; although, the form can be found in other 
less saturnine situations. While the structure of a cellular network 
is often rather intuitive, to avoid confusion researchers, analysts 
and especially experimenters have need for formal definitions and 
precise a description of the topology. To date, no such formalization 
of the cellular network topology--in the context of social networks--has 
been published.
 
14 pages 
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