NetworkExperiment: An experiment over a network

class epydemic.NetworkExperiment(g=None)

Bases: Experiment

A very lightweight base class for providing a network to an experiment. The network can either be a fixed network used for each experimental run, or a network generator that will be used to generate a new instance for each run.

Parameters

g (Union[Graph, NetworkGenerator, None]) – (optional) prototype network or network generator

In use

NetworkExperiment simply adds functions to associate a netywork or a network generator with a computational experiment.

NetworkExperiment.network()

Return the network this dynamics is running over. This will return None unless we’re actually running a simulation.

Return type

Graph

Returns

the network

NetworkExperiment.setNetworkGenerator(g)

Set the network or generator for the networks the dynamics will run over. If a network is supplied rather than a generator it will be treated as an instance of FixedNetwork.

Note that calling this method doesn’t change the working network mid-experiment: for that, use NetworkExperiment.setNetwork().

Parameters

g (Union[Graph, NetworkGenerator]) – network or network generator

NetworkExperiment.networkGenerator()

Return the generator used for this dynamics.

Return type

NetworkGenerator

Returns

the generator

During set-up the experiment instantiates a working copy network for use within the experiment, deleting it afterwards. If the experiment was provided with a single “prototype” network, whis is copied each time; if it was provided with an instance of NetworkGenerator, a new instance of the class of networks defined by the generator is used.

NetworkExperiment.setUp(params)

Set up the experiment for a run. This creates a working copy of the network (class) underlying the experiment.

Parameters

params (Dict[str, Any]) – the experimental parameters

NetworkExperiment.tearDown()

At the end of each experiment, throw away the working network.