English

Mobility Trajectories from Network-Driven Markov Dynamics

Social and Information Networks 2026-01-12 v1 Probability

Abstract

We present a generative model of human mobility in which trajectories arise as realizations of a prescribed, time-dependent Markov dynamics defined on a spatial interaction network. The model constructs a hierarchical routing structure with hubs, corridors, feeder paths, and metro links, and specifies transition matrices using gravity-type distance decay combined with externally imposed temporal schedules and directional biases. Population mass evolves as indistinguishable, memoryless movers performing a single transition per time step. When aggregated, the resulting trajectories reproduce structured origin-destination flows that reflect network geometry, temporal modulation, and connectivity constraints. By applying the Perron-Frobenius theorem to the daily evolution operator, we identify a unique periodic invariant population distribution that serves as a natural non-transient reference state. We verify consistency between trajectory-level realizations and multi-step Markov dynamics, showing that discrepancies are entirely attributable to finite-population sampling. The framework provides a network-centric, privacy-preserving approach to generating mobility trajectories and studying time-elapsed flow structure without invoking individual-level behavioral assumptions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.06020,
  title  = {Mobility Trajectories from Network-Driven Markov Dynamics},
  author = {David A. Meyer and Asif Shakeel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.06020},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, 6 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:58:05.307Z