Deterministic weighted scale-free small-world networks

We propose a deterministic weighted scale-free small-world model for considering pseudofractal web with the co-evolution of topology and weight. Considering the fluctuations in traffic flow constitute a main reason for congestion of packet delivery and poor performance of communication networks, we suggest a recursive algorithm to generate the network, which restricts the traffic fluctuations on it effectively during the evolutionary process. We provide a relatively complete view of topological structure and weight dynamics characteristics of the networks such as weight and strength distribution, degree correlations, average clustering coefficient and degree-cluster correlations as well as the diameter.     

A highly clustered scale-free network evolved by random walking

In present paper, we propose a highly clustered weighted network model that incorporates the addition of a new node with some links, new links between existing nodes and the edge's weight dynamical evolution based on weight-dependent walks at each time step. The analytical approach and numerical simulation show that the system grows into a weighted network with the power-law distributions of strength, weight and degree. The weight-dependent walk length l will not influence the strength distribution, but the clustering coefficient of the network is sensitive to l. Particularly, the clustering coefficient is especially high and almost independent of the network size when l=2.     

The networks from medical knowledge and clinical practice have small-world,scale-free,and hierarchical features

Here, we constructed and analyzed a network (henceforth, “medical knowledge network”) derived from a commonly used medical text. We show that this medical knowledge network has small-world, scale-free, and hierarchical features. We then constructed a network from data from a hospital information system that reflected actual clinical practice and found that this network also had small-world, scale-free, and hierarchical features. Moreover, we found that both the diagnosis frequency distribution of the hospital network and the diagnosis degree distribution of the medical knowledge network obeyed a similar power law. These findings suggest that the structure of clinical practice may emerge from the mutual influence of medical knowledge and clinical practice, and that the analysis of a medical knowledge network may facilitate the investigation of the characteristics of medical practice.     

Comparison of cascading failures in small-world and scale-free networks subject to vertex and edge attacks

Complex networks may undergo a global cascade of overload failures when a single highly loaded vertex or edge is intentionally attacked. Here we use the recent load model of cascading failures to investigate the performance of the small-world (SW) and scale-free (SF) networks subject to deliberate attacks on vertex and edge. Simulation results suggest that compared with the SW network, the SF network is more vulnerable to deliberate vertex attacks and more robust to deliberate edge attacks. In the SF network, deliberate vertex attacks can result in larger cascading failures than deliberate edge attacks; however, in the SW network the situation is opposite. Furthermore, with the increase of the rewiring probability the SW network becomes more and more robust to deliberate vertex and edge attacks.     

Complex scale-free networks with tunable power-law exponent and clustering

We introduce a network evolution process motivated by the network of citations in the scientific literature. In each iteration of the process a node is born and directed links are created from the new node to a set of target nodes already in the network. This set includes m$m$ “ambassador” nodes and l$l$ of each ambassador’s descendants where m$m$ and l$l$ are random variables selected from any choice of distributions _pl$p_l$ and _qm$q_m$. The process mimics the tendency of authors to cite varying numbers of papers included in the bibliographies of the other papers they cite. We show that the degree distributions of the networks generated after a large number of iterations are scale-free and derive an expression for the power-law exponent. In a particular case of the model where the number of ambassadors is always the constant m$m$ and the number of selected descendants from each ambassador is the constant l$l$, the power-law exponent is (2l+1)/l$(2l+1)/l$. For this example we derive expressions for the degree distribution and clustering coefficient in terms of l$l$ and m$m$. We conclude that the proposed model can be tuned to have the same power law exponent and clustering coefficient of a broad range of the scale-free distributions that have been studied empirically.     

Noisy scale-free networks

The impact of observational noise on the analysis of scale-free networks is studied. Various noise sources are modeled as random link removal, random link exchange and random link addition. Emphasis is on the resulting modifications for the node-degree distribution and for a functional ranking based on betweenness centrality. The implications for estimated gene-expressed networks for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia are discussed.     

Scaling in small-world resistor networks

We study the effective resistance of small-world resistor networks. Utilizing recent analytic results for the propagator of the Edwards–Wilkinson process on small-world networks, we obtain the asymptotic behavior of the disorder-averaged two-point resistance in the large system-size limit. We find that the small-world structure suppresses large network resistances: both the average resistance and its standard deviation approaches a finite value in the large system-size limit for any non-zero density of random links. We also consider a scenario where the link conductance decays as a power of the length of the random links, l⁻. In this case we find that the average effective system resistance diverges for any non-zero value of .     

Cascading failure in Watts-Strogatz small-world networks

In this paper, we study the cascading failure in Watts-Strogatz small-world networks. We find that this network model has a heterogeneous betweenness distribution, although its degree distribution is homogeneous. Further study shows that this small-world network is robust to random attack but fragile to intentional attack, in the cascading failure scenario. With comparison to standard random graph and scale-free networks, our result indicates that the robust yet fragile property in the cascading failure scenario is mainly related to heterogeneous betweenness, rather than the network degree distribution. Thus, it suggests that we have to be very careful when we use terms such as homogeneous network and heterogeneous network, unless the distribution we refer to is specified.     

Percolation on bipartite scale-free networks

Recent studies introduced biased (degree-dependent) edge percolation as a model for failures in real-life systems. In this work, such process is applied to networks consisting of two types of nodes with edges running only between nodes of unlike type. Such bipartite graphs appear in many social networks, for instance in affiliation networks and in sexual-contact networks in which both types of nodes show the scale-free characteristic for the degree distribution. During the depreciation process, an edge between nodes with degrees k and q is retained with a probability proportional to (kq)^−α, where α is positive so that links between hubs are more prone to failure. The removal process is studied analytically by introducing a generating functions theory. We deduce exact self-consistent equations describing the system at a macroscopic level and discuss the percolation transition. Critical exponents are obtained by exploiting the Fortuin-Kasteleyn construction which provides a link between our model and a limit of the Potts model.     

Hybrid routing on scale-free networks

We propose a novel routing algorithm to optimize traffic performance on complex networks. It combines static structural properties and dynamic traffic conditions together and therefore can balance the traffic between hubs and peripheral nodes more effectively. Simulation results show that the network capacity can be enhanced considerably, and the average traveling time is also shortened sharply, compared with the other two recently-proposed routing algorithms. The effect of the timescale over which the routing information is updated is also investigated. Moreover, a counter-intuitive and beneficial phenomenon about the average traveling time emerges when the packet generation rate is relatively high.     

Preferential spreading on scale-free networks

Based on a classical contact model, the spreading dynamics on scale-free networks is investigated by taking into account exponential preferentiality in both sending out and accepting processes. In order to reveal the macroscopic and microscopic dynamic features of the networks, the total infection density ρ and the infection distribution ρ(k), respectively, are discussed under various preferential characters. It is found that no matter what preferential accepting strategy is taken, priority given to small degree nodes in the sending out process increases the total infection density ρ. To generate maximum total infection density, the unbiased preferential accepting strategy is the most effective one. On a microscopic scale, a small growth of the infection distribution ρ(k) for small degree classes can lead to a considerable increase of ρ. Our investigation, from both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives, consistently reveals the important role the small degree nodes play in the spreading dynamics on scale-free networks.     

Efficient and robust routing on scale-free networks

Information routing is one of the most important problems in large communication networks. In this paper we propose a novel routing strategy in which the optimal paths between all pairs of nodes are chosen according to a cost function that incorporates degrees of nodes in paths. Results on large scale-free networks demonstrate that our routing strategy is more efficient than the shortest path algorithm and the efficient routing strategy proposed by Yan et al. [Phys. Rev. E 73, 046108 (2006)]. Furthermore our routing strategy has strong robustness against cascading failure attacks on networks.     

Random pseudofractal networks with competition

In this paper, we present a simple rule which assigns fitness to each edge to generate random pseudofractal networks (RPNs). This RPN model is both scale-free and small-world. We obtain the theoretical results that the power-law exponent is γ=2+1/(1+α) for the tunable parameter α>-1, and that the degree distribution is of an exponential form for others. Analytical results also show that an RPN has a large clustering coefficient and can process hierarchical structure as C(k)∼k^-1 that is in accordance with many real networks. And we prove that the mean distance L(N) scales slower logarithmically with network size N. In particular, we explain the effect of nodes with degree 2 on the clustering coefficient. These results agree with numerical simulations very well.     

Boolean game on scale-free networks

Inspired by the local minority game, we propose a network Boolean game and investigate its dynamical properties on scale-free networks. The system can self-organize to a stable state with better performance than the random choice game, although only the local information is available to each agent. By introducing the heterogeneity of local interactions, we find that the system will achieve the best performance when each agent's interaction frequency is linearly correlated with its information capacity. Generally, the agents with more information gain more than those with less information, while in the optimal case, each agent almost has the same average profit. In addition, we investigate the role of irrational factor and find an interesting symmetrical behavior.     

Monomer-dimer model on a scale-free small-world network

The explicit determination of the number of monomer-dimer arrangements on a network is a theoretical challenge, and exact solutions to monomer-dimer problem are available only for few limiting graphs with a single monomer on the boundary, e.g., rectangular lattice and quartic lattice; however, analytical research (even numerical result) for monomer-dimer problem on scale-free small-world networks is still missing despite the fact that a vast variety of real systems display simultaneously scale-free and small-world structures. In this paper, we address the monomer-dimer problem defined on a scale-free small-world network and obtain the exact formula for the number of all possible monomer-dimer arrangements on the network, based on which we also determine the asymptotic growth constant of the number of monomer-dimer arrangements in the network. We show that the obtained asymptotic growth constant is much less than its counterparts corresponding to two-dimensional lattice and Sierpinski fractal having the same average degree as the studied network, which indicates from another aspect that scale-free networks have a fundamentally distinct architecture as opposed to regular lattices and fractals without power-law behavior.     

Effects of the cascading failures on scale-free traffic networks

In this paper, we consider the artificial scale-free traffic network with dynamic weights (cost) and focus on how the removal strategies (flow-based removal, betweenness-based removal and mix-based removal) affect the damage of cascading failures based on the user-equilibrium (UE) assignment, which ensures the balance of flow on the traffic network. Experiment simulation shows that different removal strategies can bring large dissimilarities of the efficiency and damage after the intentional removal of an edge. We show that the mix-based removal of a single edge might reduce the damage of cascading failures and delay the breakdown time, especially for larger reserve capacity coefficient α. This is particularly important for real-world networks with a highly hetereogeneous distribution of flow, i.e., traffic and transportation networks, logistics networks and electrical power grids.     

Distance-dependent connectivity: Yet another approach to the small-world phenomenon

We investigate a relationship network of humans located in a metric space where relationships are drawn according to a distance-dependent probability density. The obtained spatial graph allows us to calculate the average separation of people in a very simple manner. The acquired results agree with the well-known presence of the small-world phenomenon in human relationships. They indicate that this feature can be understood merely as a consequence of the probability composition. We also examine how this phenomenon evolves with the development of human society.     

An imperfect competition on scale-free networks

We study an imperfect quantity competition on networks that represent rivalry relationships among firms. We show that the more heterogeneous the underlying network is, the more the output and the price are. The output and the price on scale-free networks are counter-intuitively the same as those in the monopoly regardless of the number of rival firms. We also show that any inverse demand function represented by a network has the corresponding utility function, which justifies the inverse demand function.     

Characteristics of real futures trading networks

Futures trading is the core of futures business, and it is considered as one of the typical complex systems. To investigate the complexity of futures trading, we employ the analytical method of complex networks. First, we use real trading records from the Shanghai Futures Exchange to construct futures trading networks, in which nodes are trading participants, and two nodes have a common edge if the two corresponding investors appear simultaneously in at least one trading record as a purchaser and a seller, respectively. Then, we conduct a comprehensive statistical analysis on the constructed futures trading networks. Empirical results show that the futures trading networks exhibit features such as scale-free behavior with interesting odd-even-degree divergence in low-degree regions, small-world effect, hierarchical organization, power-law betweenness distribution, disassortative mixing, and shrinkage of both the average path length and the diameter as network size increases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that uses real data to study futures trading networks, and we argue that the research results can shed light on the nature of real futures business.     

Incremental routing strategy on scale-free networks

The most important function of a network is for transporting traffic. Due to the low traffic capacity of network systems under the global shortest path routing, plenty of heuristic routing strategies are emerging. In this paper, we propose a heuristic routing strategy called the incremental routing algorithm to improve the traffic capacity of complex networks. We divide the routing process into N$N$(the network size) steps and, at each step, we heuristically calculate all the routes for one source node considering both the dynamic efficient betweenness centrality and node degree information. We do extensive simulations on scale-free networks to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed incremental routing strategy. The simulation results show that the traffic capacity has been enhanced by a substantial factor at the expense of a slight lengthening in the average path.