Traffic Optimization to Control Epidemic Outbreaks in Metapopulation Models

We propose a novel framework to study viral spreading processes in metapopulation models. Large subpopulations (i.e., cities) are connected via metalinks (i.e., roads) according to a metagraph structure (i.e., the traffic infrastructure). The problem of containing the propagation of an epidemic outbreak in a metapopulation model by controlling the traffic between subpopulations is considered. Controlling the spread of an epidemic outbreak can be written as a spectral condition involving the eigenvalues of a matrix that depends on the network structure and the parameters of the model. Based on this spectral condition, we propose a convex optimization framework to find cost-optimal approaches to traffic control in epidemic outbreaks.