 Frequency-dependent transmission

For frequency-dependent transmission with homogeneous mixing, each member of the susceptible compartment experiences force of infection $\lambda =\beta I/N=\beta i$. Consequently the total flow into the infectious compartment is $\beta SI/N$ people per unit time. The constant $\beta$ combines the contact frequency and the chance that a relevant contact causes infection, and has units of inverse time. Holding the infectious compartment's fraction fixed holds each person's force of infection fixed when $N$ changes. An unnormalized mass-action infection convention instead writes the total flow as $bSI$, where $b=\beta /N$ has units of inverse person-time; these two coefficients must not be confused.