Socio technical networks: Science and engineering design

Electrical Engineering

While there are sporadic journal articles on socio-technical networks,

there’s long been a need for an integrated resource that addresses concrete

socio-technical network (STN) design issues from algorithmic and

engineering perspectives. Filling this need, Socio-Technical Networks:

Science and Engineering Design provides a complete introduction to

the fundamentals of one of the hottest research areas across the social

sciences, networking, and computer science—including its definition,

historical background, and models.

Covering basic STN architecture from a physical/technological perspective,

the book considers the system design process in a typical STN, including

inputs, processes/actions, and outputs/products. It covers current applica￾tions in society, including transportation networks, energy systems, tele￾healthcare, financial networks, and the World Wide Web. A group of STN

expert contributors addresses privacy and security topics in the inter￾dependent context of critical infrastructure, which include risk models, trust

models, and privacy preserving schemes.

• Covers the physical and technological designs in a typical STN

• Considers STN applications in popular fields, such as healthcare

and the virtual community

• Details a method for mapping and measuring complexity, uncertainty,

and interactions among STN components

The book examines the most important STN models, including graph

theory, inferring agent dynamics, decision theory, and information

mining. It also explains structural studies, behavioral studies, agent/actor

system studies and policy studies, in different STN contexts. Complete

with in-depth case studies, this book supplies the practical insight needed

to address contemporary STN design issues.

ISBN: 978-1-4398-0980-8

9 781439 809808

90000

K10490

www.c rcp re s s.com

www.auerbach-publications.com

Socio-Technical Networks Hu Mostashari Xie

Socio-Technical

Networks

Science and Engineering Design

Socio-Technical

Networks

Science and Engineering Design

Edited by

Fei Hu

Ali Mostashari

Jiang Xie

CRC Press

Taylor & Francis Group

6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300

Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4398-0981-5 (Ebook-PDF)

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© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

To Fang Yang and Gloria Yang Hu ……

To Ali’s family ……

To Linda’s family

vii

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Contents

Preface.............................................................................................................ix

About the Authors...........................................................................................xi

Contributors List.......................................................................................... xiii

1 Sociotechnical Systems: A Conceptual Introduction..............................1

ALI MOSTASHARI

2 Systems-Level Modeling of Sociotechnical Systems..............................13

ALI MOSTASHARI

3 Dynamic Models and Analysis for Information Propagation in

Online Social Networks........................................................................39

XIAOHONG GUAN, YADONG ZHOU, QINGHUA ZHENG, QINDONG

SUN, AND JUNZHOU ZHAO

4 Analyzing Sociotechnical Networks: A Spectrum Perspective..............71

XINTAO WU, XIAOWEI YING, AND LETING WU

5 Sociotechnical Network Models: A Review.........................................105

TODD AYCOCK, JUSTIN HEADLEY, JUSTIN FLOYD, AND FEI HU

6 Understanding Interactions among BitTorrent Peers..........................127

HAIYANG WANG, LI MA, CAMERON DALE, AND JIANGCHUAN LIU

7 Sociotechnical Environments and Assistive Technology

Abandonment......................................................................................167

STEFAN PARRY CARMIEN

8 A Sociotechnical Collaborative Negotiation Approach to Support

Group Decisions for Engineering Design...........................................181

STEPHEN C-Y. LU, NAN JING, AND JIAN CAI

9 Risk Analysis in Sociotechnical System..............................................229

JONATHAN SCOTT CORLEY AND FEI HU

viii  ◾  Contents

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

10 Privacy Support in Cloud-Computing-Based Sociotechnical

Networks.............................................................................................249

YAO WU, FEI HU, AND QI HAO

11 Trust Models in Cloud-Computing-Based Sociotechnical

Networks.............................................................................................271

YAO WU, FEI HU, AND QI HAO

12 Networking Protocols in Sociotechnical Networks.............................297

DONG ZHANG AND FEI HU

13 Design Tools of Sociotechnical Networks...........................................313

LING XU AND FEI HU

14 Sociotechnical Networks for Healthcare Applications........................325

JOSHUA DAVENPORT, GABRIEL HILLARD, AND FEI HU

15 Collaborative Software Development Based on Socialtechnical

Networks............................................................................................ 343

RYAN ANDREW TAYLOR AND FEI HU

16 Virtual Communities Based on Sociotechnical Systems.....................369

KELI KOHOUE, SADITH OSSENI, AND FEI HU

Index............................................................................................................383

ix

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Preface

Needless to say, one of the hottest research fields across computer networking and

social sciences is sociotechnical networks (STNs). In general when we discuss socio￾technical networks in this book, we are referring to systems such as the Internet,

power grids, and transportation networks enabled by data communication networks

and telecommunication networks. Thus, the focus is on the technological network

and understanding the complexities of designing, managing, and operating such

networks using social/organization networks. This sets the focus apart from work

process design or ergonomics, and concentrates on the design and architecture of

large-scale technological networks that are influenced by and in turn impact a social

network of people and organizations with different goals and values.

Here, we define a sociotechnical system as a dynamic entity comprised of inter￾dependent and interacting social/institutional and physical/technological parts,

characterized by inputs, processes/actions, and outputs/products. Sociotechnical

systems are usually composed of a group of related component and subsystems, for

which the degree and nature of the relationships is not always clearly understood.

They have large, long-lived impacts that span over a wide geographical area. Many

have integrated subsystems coupled through feedback loops and are affected by

social, political, and economic issues.

Examples of systems that fall within this category are transportation networks,

telecommunication systems, energy systems, the World Wide Web, water alloca￾tion systems, financial networks, etc. Such systems have wide-ranging impacts, and

are characterized by different types and levels of complexity, uncertainty, and risk,

as well as a large number of stakeholders.

This book will mainly cover the following aspects in STNs:

1. Fundamentals of Sociotechnical Networks: In this part, we will introduce the

basic concept of STN including its definition, historical background, and

significance.

2. STN Models: Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a mathematical method for

“connecting the dots.” SNA allows us to map and measure complex, and

sometimes covert, human groups and organizations.

x  ◾  Preface

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

3. Privacy and Security: We will cover the following topics: risk models, trust

models, and privacy preserving protocols. Those topics will assist in defin￾ing the parameters and processes for reducing risk, managing security, and

maintaining continuity of operations for critical infrastructure systems in

vulnerable social network regions.

4. STN applications: We will explain the STN applications in some popular

fields, such as healthcare, virtual community, and others.

This book can serve as a good technical reference for college students, researchers,

and social scientists. To the best of our knowledge, up to this point this is the first

book that covers the comprehensive knowledge on STNs.

xi

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

About the Authors

Dr. Fei Hu is currently an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and

Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama (main campus), Tuscaloosa,

Alabama. His research interests are sensor networks, wireless networks, network

security, and their applications in biomedicine. His research has been supported

by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Cisco, Sprint, and other sources. He

obtained his Ph.D. degrees at Tongji University (Shanghai) in the field of sig￾nal processing (in 1999), and at Clarkson University (New York) in the field of

electrical and computer engineering (in 2002). He obtained his M.S. and B.S.

degrees in telecommunication engineering from Shanghai Tiedao University in

1996 and 1993, respectively. He has published over 100 journal/conference papers

and book (chapters).

Dr. Ali Mostashari is currently the director of the Center for Complex Adaptive

Sociotechnological Systems (COMPASS), and an associate professor (Research) at

the School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken,

New Jersey. He obtained his Ph.D. in engineering systems/technology, and man￾agement and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. He

was a Young Global Leader Nominee 2008. He was also listed as Asia 21 Young

Leader by the Asia Society (2007). His research focus is complex sociotechnical

network design.

Dr. Jiang (Linda) Xie received her B.E. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing,

China, in 1997, M.Phil. degree from Hong Kong University of Science and

Technology in 1999, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of

Technology in 2002 and 2004, respectively, all in electrical engineering. She is

currently an assistant professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She was a graduate

research assistant in the Broadband and Wireless Networking Laboratory (BWN￾LAB) at the Georgia Institute of Technology from August 1999 to April 2004.

She is also a member of the IEEE Communications Society, IEEE Women in

Engineering, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and Eta Kappa

Nu (ECE Honor Society).

xiii

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Contributors List

Todd Aycock

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Jian Cai

Peking University

Beijing, China

Stefan Parry Carmien

Department of NeuroEngineering

Fatronik-Tecnalia Foundation

San Sebastian, Spain

Jonathan Scott Corley

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Cameron Dale

School of Computing Science

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, British Colombia,

Canada

Joshua Davenport

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Justin Floyd

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Xiaohong Guan

System Engineering Institute

Xi’an Jiaotong University

Xi’an, China

Qi Hao

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Justin Headley

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Gabriel Hillard

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Fei Hu

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

xiv  ◾  Contributors List

© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Nan Jing

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

Keli Kohoue

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Jiangchuan Liu

School of Computing Science

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, British Colombia,

Canada

Stephen C-Y. Lu

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

Li Ma

School of Computing Science

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, British Colombia,

Canada

Ali Mostashari

School of Systems and Enterprises

Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, New Jersey

Sadith Osseni

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Qindong Sun

System Engineering Institute

Xi’an Jiaotong University

Xi’an, China

Ryan Andrew Taylor

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Haiyang Wang

School of Computing Science

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, British Colombia

Canada

Leting Wu

Department of Software and

Information Systems

College of Computing and Informatics

University of North Carolina at

Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

Xintao Wu

Department of Software and

Information Systems

College of Computing and Informatics

University of North Carolina at

Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

Yao Wu

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Ling Xu

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Xiaowei Ying

Department of Software and

Information Systems

College of Computing and Informatics

University of North Carolina at

Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

Dong Zhang

ECE Department

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama