Link formation in a telecommunication network

Traditional network generation models aim to replicate global structural properties observed on various real-world networks (power law degree distribution, short average distance, community structure, etc.) through synthetic link formation mechanisms such as triadic closure or preferential attachment. Nowadays the large amount of data available allows to study more precisely the link formation processes and to compare the models to real situations. In this work, we analyse the communication activities of the users of a mobile telephony operator for studying the link formation process. The communications emitted and received by users are strong indicators for understanding the underlying mechanisms of the link formation process and highlighting how user attributes correlate with the formation process in such a network. In a first study conducted at a global level we show that the traditional mechanisms commonly used in network generation models are not the main link formation mechanisms involved in this network. In a second study, we analyse more precisely the link formation process by searching for correlations between some user attributes and the formation of the new links. These results provide valuable guidelines to the design of more realistic generation models taking into account network structure and node attributes.