Localized shortest-paths estimation of influence propagation for multiple influencers

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing commands which, when executed by a processor circuit in a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for estimating an influence of a local neighborhood around a given node in a network, the influence biasing the node to fall within a group associated with one of two players in a two-player influencer blocking conflict, the method comprising:

• initializing an influence value;
• selecting a node outside of a defender set and outside of an attacker set;
• determining neighboring nodes having an impact on the selected node;
• selecting source nodes from the determined neighboring nodes;
• distributing the selected source nodes according to a hop-distance to the selected node;
• determining an aggregated conditional probability of influence for each of the selected source nodes according to their distribution;
• updating the influence value according to the aggregated conditional probability;
• and
• providing a total expected influence when all neighboring nodes having an impact have been considered.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing commands which, when executed by a processor circuit in a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

• forming a set of defender actions to increase a defender set of nodes;
• forming a set of attacker actions;
• determining a defender strategy based the set of attacker actions, the defender strategy comprising a new defender action;
• determining an attacker strategy that is based the set of defender actions;
• modifying the set of defender actions to include the new defender action;
• updating the set of attacker actions according to the attacker strategy;
• forming a new set of attacker actions when the set of defender nodes increases more than a threshold;
• and
• storing the set of defender actions and the set of attacker actions in the non-transitory computer readable medium when the convergence of a set of defender nodes and a set of attacker nodes is reached.