Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Verification of lack of emergent behavior in extending a social network of agents

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Social Network Analysis and Mining Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The scalability of the system is of vital importance in the design of social networks. This research attempts to establish a comprehensive framework for analysis and validation of requirements and design documents for software systems. In previous work, we applied this framework to analyze the requirements of a social network of agents with respect to scalability of the system. In our approach, system requirements were expressed using scenario-based specifications. Scenarios are appealing because of their expressive power and simplicity. Moreover, due to the clear and concise notation of scenarios, they can be used to analyze the system requirements for general validity, lack of deadlock, and existence of emergent behavior. In this paper a methodology is presented to formally verify that certain scenarios do not emerge in the system’s behavior. This methodology is devised to indicate whether or not the new requirements of the system are consistent with the current requirements in place. A larger prototype of a social network of MSA for semantic search is utilized to illustrate the developed methodology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alur R, Etessami K, Yannakakis M (2003) Inference of message sequence charts. IEEE Trans Softw Eng:623–633

  • Burt R (1995) Structural holes: the social structure of competition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Cappé O, Moulines E, Rydén T (2007) Inference in hidden Markov Models. Springer

  • Casual closure for MSC languages (2005)

  • Daconta MC, Obrst LJ, Smith KT (2003) The semantic Web. A guide to the future of XML, web services and knowledge management. Indianapolis

  • El-Sherif SM, Far B, Eberlein A (2011) Calculating the strength of ties of a social network in a semantic search system using Hidden Markov Models. In: International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC). Anchorage, Alaska, pp 2755–2760

  • Far BH, Zhong C, Yang Z, Afsharchi M (2009) Realization of semantic search using concept learning and document annotation agents. In: Proceeding of Twenty-First International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE). pp 164–169

  • Gilbert E, Karahalios K (2009) Predicting tie strength with social network. In: International conference on Human factors in computing systems. Boston, pp 211–220

  • Goldenson DR, Gibson DL (2003) Demonstrating the impact and benefits of CMMI: an update and preliminary results. CMU/SEI-2003-SR-009

  • Granovetter M (ed) (1983) The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited. In: Sociological theory

  • Harel D, Kugler H (2002) Synthesizing state-based object systems from lsc specifications. Int J Found Comput Sci

  • ITU: message sequence charts. Recommendation, International Telecommunication Union (1992)

  • Khurshid B, Moshirpour M, Eberlein A, Far BH (2013) An automated ontology generation technique for an emergent behavior detection system. In: 14th International Conference on Information Reuse & Integration (IRI 2013). San Francisco, pp 380–387

  • Kruger I, Grosu R, Scholz P, Broy M (1999) From mscs to statecharts. In: Rammig FJ (ed) Distributed and parallel embedded systems. Kluwer Academic Publisher

  • Lin N, Ensel WM, Vaughn JC (1981) Social resources and strength of ties: Structural factors in occupational status attainment. Am Sociol Rev 46:393–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loupasakis A, Ntarmos N, Triantafillou P (2011) eXO: decentralized autonomous scalable social networking. In: The 5th Biennial Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR). Asilomar, California, pp 85–95

  • Makinen E, Systa T (2001) MAS—an interactive synthesizer to support behavioral modeling in UML” presented at the ICSE 2001. Toronto

  • Moshirpour M (2011) Model-based detection of emergent behavior in distributed and multi-agent systems from component level perspective. In: Master of Science Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. University of Calgary, Calgary

  • Moshirpour M, Eberlein A, Far BH (2013) Automated construction of system domain knowledge using an ontology-based approach. In: The 25th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2013). Boston

  • Moshirpour M, El-Sherif SM, Alhajj R, Far BH (2013) Detecting emergent behavior in a social network of agents. In: Özyer T, Rokne J, Wagner G, Reuser AHP (eds) The influence of technology on social network analysis and mining. Springer, pp 339–409

  • Moshirpour M, El-Sherif SM, Alhajj R, Far BH (2013) Analyzing the scalability of a social network of agents. In: The 2013 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2013). Niagara Falls, Canada

  • Moshirpour M, Mousavi A, Far BH (2010) Detecting emergent behavior in distributed systems using scenario-based specifications. In: Presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. San Francisco Bay, USA

  • Moshirpour M, Mousavi A, Far BH (2010) Detecting emergent behavior in distributed systems using scenario-based specifications. In: International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. San Francisco Bay

  • Mousavi A (2009) Inference of emergent behaviours of scenario-based specifications, Ph.D. thesis Ph.D. thesis, Department of Electrial and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary

  • Mousavi A, Far B (2008) “Eliciting Scenarios from Scenarios,” presented at the proceedings of 20th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2008). San Francisco Bay

  • Muccini H (2003) Detecting implied scenarios analyzing nonlocal branching choices. In: Presented at the FASE. Warsaw, Poland

  • Onnela JP, Saramaki J, Hyvonen J, Szabo G, Lazer D, Kaski K, et al. (2007) Structure and tie strengths in a mobile communication network. Natl Acad Sci United States Am 104

  • Petroczi A, Nepusz T, Bazso F (2007) Measuring tie-strength in virtual social networks. Off J Int Netw Soc Netw Anal 27

  • Pujol JM, Siganos G,Erramilli V (2010) The little engine(s) that could: scaling online social networks without Pains. In: ACM SIGCOMM. New Dehli, India, pp 375–386

  • Unified modeling language specification. version 2. (ed) (2006) Available from Rational Software Corporation. Cupertino, CA

  • Uchitel S, Kramer J, Magee J (2002) Negative scenarios for implied scenario elicitation. In: Presented at the 10th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2002). Charleston

  • Uchitel S, Kramer J, Magee J (2003) Synthesis of behavioral models from scenarios. IEEE Trans Softw Eng:pp 99–115

  • Whittle J, Schumann J (2000) “Generating statecharts designs from scenarios,” presented at the ICSE. Limerick, Ireland

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittle J, Schumann J (2006) “Scenario-Based Engineering of Multi-Agent Systems,” in agent technology from a formal perspective, 3rd edn. Springer, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by a grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). M. Moshirpour would like to thank NSERC, Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures (AITF), and the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for their logistics and financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Mohammad Moshirpour, Shimaa M. El-Sherif & Behrouz H. Far

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Reda Alhajj

  3. Department of Computer Science, Global University, Beirut, Lebanon

    Reda Alhajj

Authors
  1. Mohammad Moshirpour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shimaa M. El-Sherif
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Reda Alhajj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Behrouz H. Far
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Moshirpour.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moshirpour, M., El-Sherif, S.M., Alhajj, R. et al. Verification of lack of emergent behavior in extending a social network of agents. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 5, 1 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-014-0242-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-014-0242-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation