Stability, efficiency, and contentedness of social storage networks

Abstract

Social storage systems are a good alternative to existing data backup systems of local, centralized, and P2P backup. Till date, researchers have mostly focussed on either building such systems by using existing underlying social networks (exogenously built) or on studying Quality of Service (QoS) related issues. In this paper, we look at two untouched aspects of social storage systems. One aspect involves modelling social storage as an endogenous social network, where agents themselves decide with whom they want to build data backup relation, which is more intuitive than exogenous social networks. The second aspect involves studying the stability of social storage systems, which would help reduce maintenance costs and further, help build efficient as well as contented networks.We have a four fold contribution that covers the above two aspects. We, first, model the social storage system as a strategic network formation game. We define the utility of each agent in the network under two different frameworks, one where the cost to add and maintain links is considered in the utility function and the other where budget constraints are considered. In the context of social storage and social cloud computing, these utility functions are the first of its kind, and we use them to define and analyse the social storage network game. Second, we propose the concept of bilateral stability which refines the pairwise stability concept defined by Jackson and Wolinsky (1996), by requiring mutual consent for both addition and deletion of links, as compared to mutual consent just for link addition. Mutual consent for link deletion is especially important in the social storage setting. The notion of bilateral stability subsumes the bilateral equilibrium definition of Goyal and Vega-Redondo (2007). Third, we prove necessary and the sufficient conditions for bilateral stability

Resource availability in the social cloud: An economics perspective

“…In particular, Mane et al. (2020b, 2019) analyze the stability and efficiency analysis of these networks, and analysis of externalities by proposing degree‐based utility and degree–distance‐based utility functions. For example, Mane et al.…”

“…For example, Mane et al. (2020b) study social storage cloud formation in a strategic setting, where self‐interested agents build a storage resource‐sharing network for maximizing their respective utilities. They show that for the given degree‐based utility of agents in this social cloud setting, agents always form the η‐regular network (i.e., the network where each agent has η neighbors).…”

“…The studies (Mane et al, 2020b(Mane et al, , 2019Mane et al, 2014;Mane et al, 2020a;Moscibroda et al, 2011) focus on endogenous social connections in terms of resource-sharing network formation. Mane et al (2020b) study social cloud formation in a strategic setting.…”

“…The studies (Mane et al, 2020b(Mane et al, , 2019Mane et al, 2014;Mane et al, 2020a;Moscibroda et al, 2011) focus on endogenous social connections in terms of resource-sharing network formation. Mane et al (2020b) study social cloud formation in a strategic setting. In particular, Mane et al (2020bMane et al ( , 2019 analyze the stability and efficiency analysis of these networks, and analysis of externalities by proposing degree-based utility and degree-distance-based utility functions.…”

Formation of Stable and Efficient Social Storage Cloud

“…In [23], the authors consider a degree-based utility model, where agents benefit only from direct neighbors, and the benefit decreases with an increase in the number of neighbors of each neighbour [24]). The utility function we define in this study is degree-distance-based, where agents obtain benefits from direct and indirect neighbors, but the benefit decreases with an increase in the number of direct and indirect neighbors [25].…”