An Integrated Framework for Competitive Multi-channel Marketing of Multi-featured Products

For any company, multiple channels are available for reaching a population in order to market its products. Some of the most well-known channels are (a) mass media advertisement, (b) recommendations using social advertisement, and (c) viral marketing using social networks. The company would want to maximize its reach while also accounting for simultaneous marketing of competing products, where the product marketings may not be independent. In this direction, we propose and analyze a multi-featured generalization of the classical linear threshold model. We hence develop a framework for integrating the considered marketing channels into the social network, and an approach for allocating budget among these channels

A Multi-phase Approach for Improving Information Diffusion in Social Networks

For maximizing influence spread in a social network, given a certain budget on the number of seed nodes, we investigate the effects of selecting and activating the seed nodes in multiple phases. In particular, we formulate an appropriate objective function for two-phase influence maximization under the independent cascade model, investigate its properties, and propose algorithms for determining the seed nodes in the two phases. We also study the problem of determining an optimal budget-split and delay between the two phases.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of The 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 201

Optimal Multiphase Investment Strategies for Influencing Opinions in a Social Network

We study the problem of optimally investing in nodes of a social network in a competitive setting, where two camps aim to maximize adoption of their opinions by the population. In particular, we consider the possibility of campaigning in multiple phases, where the final opinion of a node in a phase acts as its initial biased opinion for the following phase. Using an extension of the popular DeGroot-Friedkin model, we formulate the utility functions of the camps, and show that they involve what can be interpreted as multiphase Katz centrality. Focusing on two phases, we analytically derive Nash equilibrium investment strategies, and the extent of loss that a camp would incur if it acted myopically. Our simulation study affirms that nodes attributing higher weightage to initial biases necessitate higher investment in the first phase, so as to influence these biases for the terminal phase. We then study the setting in which a camp's influence on a node depends on its initial bias. For single camp, we present a polynomial time algorithm for determining an optimal way to split the budget between the two phases. For competing camps, we show the existence of Nash equilibria under reasonable assumptions, and that they can be computed in polynomial time

Effectiveness of Diffusing Information through a Social Network in Multiple Phases

We study the effectiveness of using multiple phases for maximizing the extent of information diffusion through a social network, and present insights while considering various aspects. In particular, we focus on the independent cascade model with the possibility of adaptively selecting seed nodes in multiple phases based on the observed diffusion in preceding phases, and conduct a detailed simulation study on real-world network datasets and various values of seeding budgets. We first present a negative result that more phases do not guarantee a better spread, however the adaptability advantage of more phases generally leads to a better spread in practice, as observed on real-world datasets. We study how diffusing in multiple phases affects the mean and standard deviation of the distribution representing the extent of diffusion. We then study how the number of phases impacts the effectiveness of multiphase diffusion, how the diffusion progresses phase-by-phase, and what is an optimal way to split the total seeding budget across phases. Our experiments suggest a significant gain when we move from single phase to two phases, and an appreciable gain when we further move to three phases, but the marginal gain thereafter is usually not very significant. Our main conclusion is that, given the number of phases, an optimal way to split the budget across phases is such that the number of nodes influenced in each phase is almost the same.Comment: This paper is under revie

Broadcasting Routing Protocols in VANET

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) is a subclass of Mobile ad hoc networks which provides a distinguished approach for Intelligent Transport System (ITS). The survey of routing protocols in VANET is important and necessary for smart ITS. This paper discusses the advantages / disadvantages and the applications of various routing protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks. It explores the motivation behind the designed, and traces the evolution of these routing protocols. This paper discusses the main 5 types of protocols for VANET Topology Based, Positioned Based, Geo Cast, Broad Cast, and Cluster Based Protocols. It also discusses the types of Broadcast Protocols like multi hop and reliable broadcast protocols. Keywords: VANET, ITS, MANET, UMB, DV-CAST