Circadian pattern and burstiness in mobile phone communication (1101.0377v2)

Abstract: The temporal communication patterns of human individuals are known to be inhomogeneous or bursty, which is reflected as the heavy tail behavior in the inter-event time distribution. As the cause of such bursty behavior two main mechanisms have been suggested: a) Inhomogeneities due to the circadian and weekly activity patterns and b) inhomogeneities rooted in human task execution behavior. Here we investigate the roles of these mechanisms by developing and then applying systematic de-seasoning methods to remove the circadian and weekly patterns from the time-series of mobile phone communication events of individuals. We find that the heavy tails in the inter-event time distributions remain robustly with respect to this procedure, which clearly indicates that the human task execution based mechanism is a possible cause for the remaining burstiness in temporal mobile phone communication patterns.

• The paper confirms that bursty patterns and heavy-tailed inter-event times in mobile phone communication persist even after removing circadian and weekly cycles.
• This persistence suggests that human task execution behavior is a significant factor driving the observed burstiness, not just cyclic activity patterns.
• The findings highlight the need for new models that integrate human task execution to better explain temporal communication patterns and have implications for analyzing behavior in other domains.

Analyzing Circadian Patterns and Burstiness in Mobile Phone Communication

This paper explores the temporal communication patterns of individuals as reflected in mobile phone communication data. The primary focus is on understanding the inhomogeneous, bursty behavior inherent in human communication patterns, characterized by heavy-tailed inter-event time distributions. Such patterns have been ascribed to two main mechanisms: a) circadian and weekly activity cycles and b) task execution behavior specific to individuals.

The authors develop systematic de-seasoning methods to strip away circadian and weekly patterns, thus allowing for an interrogation of task execution behavior as a potential contributor to residual burstiness. By applying these methods to mobile phone communication data over a significant period, the findings demonstrate that removing these cyclic patterns does not eliminate the heavy tails in the inter-event time distributions. This robustness suggests that burstiness may indeed be significantly influenced by human task execution.

Key Findings:

1. Heavy-Tailed Distributions: The paper confirms that the inter-event time distributions remain heavy-tailed even after removing circadian and weekly patterns. This undermines the notion that such patterns are solely due to cyclic activity patterns, pointing instead to inherent human task execution behavior.
2. Burstiness Analysis: Measurements of burstiness using the Burstiness parameter $B$ reveal only slight reductions following the de-seasoning process. The consistency of burstiness across varying strengths suggests persistent correlations independent of diurnal cycles.
3. Power Spectrum Analysis: The investigation into power spectra further supports the removal of circadian and weekly cycles, while still demonstrating lingering bursty characteristics.

Implications and Future Directions:

• Model Development: These findings invite further exploration into models that integrally consider human task execution behavior. Existing models might be refined or new ones devised to better explain the correlations leading to burstiness.
• Broader Applicability: The persistence of burstiness beyond circadian influences holds potential implications for understanding patterns in other domains, such as digital social networks or workplace productivity, where task execution plays a role.
• Data Clustering: For nuanced analyses, employing clustering methods could help in segregating users based on distinct activity patterns beyond periodic cycles, leading to more informed de-seasoning approaches.

Concluding Remarks

The research presented offers valuable insights into the underpinnings of human communication behaviors captured via mobile phone usage. By methodically stripping away cyclic influences, it underscores the need to consider broader behavioral patterns indicative of task-based execution in explaining bursty temporal patterns. The conclusions drawn provoke thought on both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, paving the path for future advances in behavioral analysis, network modeling, and applied communications studies.