Contacts with agreements: Towards face-to-face communication modelingContacts with agreements

Abstract.

In this paper a random matching model is elaborated to characterize bilateral interregional human face-to-face contacts. The bilateral contacts can be realized only when both parties agree to meet each other. Thus, mutual agreement is the core of our contact modeling. Spatial distribution of bilateral contacts can be described as the results of random matching by potential meeting partners. The failure in agreement of meeting is the major source of inefficiency in human contacts among regions. The paper provides a random matching scheme to describe the generation mechanism of inter-regional human contacts. The paper concludes by illustrating some numerical examples showing how changes in transportation costs can modify the inter-regional interactability in terms of the face-to-face contacts.