Complex network demonstration: Topology of instant communication systems

ICS have become very popular communication tolls nowadays. They can provide instant, multi-directed and multi-types of communications which makes the message spreading in ICS different from those in WWW, Blog and email systems. Groups have great impacts on message spreading in ICS. The research demonstrates the power law distribution of groups in MSN with parameter Upsi ranging from 0.76 to 1.22. User topology is discussed based on an online survey. According to the result, degree distribution of users has a peak value and doesn´t present power law character. This may indicate that social networks should be a prospective direction for the research on ICS topology.