Modeling Propagation Phenomena for Mobile Phone Data Analytics

Abstract People in modern society rely on mobile phone devices as the primary way to retrieve information and to connect with others across the globe. The kinds of connections these devices support give rise to networks at many levels, from those among devices connected by near-field radio or bluetooth, to society-wide networks of phone calls made between individuals. This chapter introduces stateof- the-art propagation models that have been applied to such networks, covering a wide spectrum of methods that models the spread of information at multiple levels. It discusses how these models are applied for many innovative studies, including how short-lived information spreads between phone callers, how malware spreads within public places, to detect fraudulent and scamming activity on a phone network, and to predict the propensity of a user to unsubscribe from a mobile phone carrier. It concludes with a discussion of future research opportunities for propagation modelers interested in mobile phone data analytics.