Traffic dynamics in scale-free networks with limited packet-delivering capacity

We propose a limited packet-delivering capacity model for traffic dynamics in scale-free networks. In this model, the total node’s packet-delivering capacity is fixed, and the allocation of packet-delivering capacity on node i is proportional to , where k_i is the degree of node i and ? is a adjustable parameter. We have applied this model on the shortest path routing strategy as well as the local routing strategy, and found that there exists an optimal value of parameter ? leading to the maximal network capacity under both routing strategies. We provide some explanations for the emergence of optimal ?.     

Optimal routing strategy based on the minimum information path

In this paper, we propose a new routing strategy based on the minimum information path, named the optimal routing (OR) strategy, to improve the transportation capacity of scale-free networks. We define the average routing centrality degree of the node to analyze the traffic load on nodes of different degree. We analyze the transportation capacity by using the critical values of R_c, the average packet travel time, and the average path length. Both theoretical and experimental results show that the capacity of the network under our strategy will be maximized when the packet-delivery rate of the node is directly proportional to the degree.     

A dynamic routing strategy with limited buffer on scale-free network

In this paper, we propose an integrated routing strategy based on global static topologyinformation and local dynamic data packet queue lengths to improve the transmissionefficiency of scale-free networks. The proposed routing strategy is a combination of aglobal static routing strategy (based on the shortest path algorithm) and local dynamicqueue length management, in which, instead of using an infinite buffer, the queue lengthof each node i in the proposed routing strategy is limited by acritical queue length Q_ic. When the networktraffic is lower and the queue length of each node i is shorter than itscritical queue length Q_ic, it forwardspackets according to the global routing table. With increasing network traffic, when thebuffers of the nodes with higher degree are full, they do not receive packets due to theirlimited buffers and the packets have to be delivered to the nodes with lower degree. Theglobal static routing strategy can shorten the transmission time that it takes a packet toreach its destination, and the local limited queue length can balance the network traffic.The optimal critical queue lengths of nodes have been analysed. Simulation results showthat the proposed routing strategy can get better performance than that of the globalstatic strategy based on topology, and almost the same performance as that of the globaldynamic routing strategy with less complexity.     

一类基于随机行走机理的优化路由改进策略

在对随机行走过程的研究中发现:单个粒子通过某条特定路径的时间正比于该路径上所有节点度的连乘积.据此,文章提出基于随机行走机理的优化路由改进策略.该策略以节点度连乘积最小化为原则,通过调节可变参数,建立节点处理能力均匀分布的情况下最佳路由策略.通过分析比较不同路由策略条件下平均路由介数中心度,网络的临界负载量,平均路径长度以及平均搜索信息量等性能指标,研究结果表明,此改进路由策略在保证网络平均路径长度较少增加的前提下,使网络的传输能力获得最大幅度的提升. 关键词： 复杂网络 路由策略 负载传输     

Transport optimization on complex networks

We present a comparative study of the application of a recently introduced heuristic algorithm to the optimization of transport on three major types of complex networks. The algorithm balances network traffic iteratively by minimizing the maximum node betweenness with as little path lengthening as possible. We show that by using this optimal routing, a network can sustain significantly higher traffic without jamming than in the case of shortest path routing. A formula is proved and tested with numerical simulation that allows quick computation of the average number of hops along the path and of the average travel times once the betweennesses of the nodes are computed. Using this formula, we show that routing optimization preserves the small-world character exhibited by networks under shortest path routing, and that it significantly reduces the average travel time on congested networks with only a negligible increase in the average travel time at low loads. Finally, we study the correlation between the weights of the links in the case of optimal routing and the betweennesses of the nodes connected by them.     

Traffic resource allocation for complex networks

In this paper, an optimal resource allocation strategy is proposed to enhance traffic dynamics in complex networks. The network resources are the total node packet-delivering capacity and the total link bandwidth. An analytical method is developed to estimate the overall network capacity by using the concept of efficient betweenness (ratio of algorithmic betweenness and local processing capacity). Three network structures (scale-free, small-world, and random networks) and two typical routing protocols (shortest path protocol and efficient routing protocol) are adopted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed strategy. Our results show that the network capacity is reversely proportional to the average path length for a particular routing protocol and the shortest path protocol can achieve the largest network capacity when the proposed resource allocation strategy is adopted.     

Bandwidth allocation strategy for traffic systems of scale-free network

In this Letter, the bandwidth resource allocation strategy is considered for traffic systems of complex networks. With a finite resource of bandwidth, an allocation strategy with preference parameter α is proposed considering the links importance. The performance of bandwidth allocation strategy is studied for the local routing protocol and the shortest path protocol. When important links are slightly favored in the bandwidth allocation, the system can achieve the optimal traffic performance for the two routing protocols. For the shortest path protocol, we also give a method to estimate the network traffic capacity theoretically.     

Traffic dynamics based on a traffic awareness routing strategy on scale-free networks

By incorporating local traffic information into the shortest path routing strategy, we numerically investigate the effectiveness of the traffic awareness routing strategy for scale-free networks with different clustering. In order to characterize the efficiency of the packet-delivery process, we introduce an order parameter and an average transmission time that allow us to measure the network capacity by the critical value of phase transition from free flow to congestion. Compared with the shortest path routing protocol, the network capacity is greatly enhanced by the traffic awareness routing strategy. We also find that there exists an optimum value for the tunable parameter in the congestion awareness strategy. Moreover, simulation results show that the more clustered the network, the less efficient the packet-delivery process.     

Efficient packet routing strategy in complex networks

We investigate a new efficient packet routing strategy which mitigates traffic congestion on complex networks. In order to avoid congestion, we minimize the maximum betweenness, which is a measure for concentration of routing paths passing through a node in the network. Danila et al. propose a packet routing strategy in which, instead of shortest paths, they used efficient paths, which are the paths with the minimum total summations of weights assigned to nodes in the respective paths. They use a heuristic algorithm in which the weights are updated step by step by using the information of betweenness of each node in every step and the respective total summations of weights for paths through the nodes with large degrees become comparatively large. Thus passage through such nodes, where congestion almost occurs, is likely to be avoided in their algorithm. The convergence time by their algorithm is, however, quite long. In this paper, we propose a new efficient heuristic algorithm which balances traffic on networks by achieving minimization of the maximum betweenness in the much smaller number of iteration steps for convergence than that by the algorithm of Danila et al.     

Traffic of packets with non-homogeneously selected destinations in scale-free network

In this paper, we study the information traffic flow in communication networks with scale-free topology. We consider the situation arising when packets are delivered to non-homogeneously selected destinations. It is found that the network capacity R_c increases with the increase of 〈k〉 (average degree of destination nodes) under local routing strategy. In contrast, R_c is essentially independent of 〈k〉 under shortest path strategy. Based on this finding, an integrated routing strategy that can enhance network capacity is proposed by combining the two strategies.     

Load balanced diffusive capture process on homophilic scale-free networks

Diffusive capture processes are known to be an effective method for information search on complex networks. The biased N$N$ lions–lamb model provides quick search time by attracting random walkers to high degree nodes, where most capture events take place. The price of the efficiency is extreme traffic concentration on top hubs. We propose traffic load balancing provided by type specific biased random walks. For that we introduce a multi-type scale-free graph generation model, which embeds homophily structure into the network by utilizing type dependent random walks. We show analytically and with simulations that by augmenting the biased random walk method with a simple type homophily rule, we can alleviate the traffic concentration on high degree nodes by spreading the load proportionally between hubs with different types of our generated multi-type scale-free topologies.     

Generalized minimum information path routing strategy on scale-free networks

This paper presents a new routing strategy by introducing a tunable parameter into the minimum information path routing strategy we proposed previously.It is found that network transmission capacity can be considerably enhanced by adjusting the parameter with various allocations of node capability for packet delivery.Moreover,the proposed routing strategy provides a traffic load distribution which can better match the allocation of node capability than that of traditional efficient routing strategies,leading to a network with improved transmission performance.This routing strategy,without deviating from the shortest-path routing strategy in the length of paths too much,produces improved performance indexes such as critical generating rate,average length of paths and average search information.     

Effects of node buffer and capacity on network traffic

In this paper, we study the optimization of network traffic by considering the effects of node buffer ability and capacity. Two node buffer settings are considered. The node capacity is considered to be proportional to its buffer ability. The node effects on network traffic systems are studied with the shortest path protocol and an extension of the optimal routing [Phys. Rev. E 74 046106 (2006)]. In the diagrams of flux-density relationships, it is shown that a nodes buffer ability and capacity have profound effects on the network traffic.     

Effective strategy of adding nodes and links for maximizing the traffic capacity of scale-free network

In this paper, we propose an efficient strategy to enhance traffic capacity via the process of nodes and links increment. We show that by adding shortcut links to the existing networks, packets are avoided flowing through hub nodes. We investigate the performances of our proposed strategy under the shortest path routing strategy and the local routing strategy. Our obtained results show that using the proposed strategy, the traffic capacity can be effectively enhanced under the shortest path routing strategy. Under the local routing strategy, the obtained results show that the proposed strategy is efficient only when packets are more likely to be forwarded to low-degree nodes in their routing paths. Compared with other strategies, the obtained results indicate that our proposed strategy of adding nodes and links is the most effective in enhancing the traffic capacity, i.e., the traffic capacity can be maximally enhanced with the least number of additional nodes and links.     

Optimization of transport protocols in complex networks

In this paper, an optimal routing strategy is proposed to enhance the traffic capacity of complex networks. In order to avoid nodes overloading, the new algorithm is derived on the basis of generalized betweenness centrality which gives an estimate of traffic handled by the node for a route set. Since the nodes with large betweenness centrality are more susceptible to traffic congestion, the traffic can be improved, as our strategy, by redistributing traffic load from nodes with large betweenness centrality to nodes with small betweenness centrality in the proceeding of computing collective routing table. Particularly, depending on a parameter that controls the optimization scale, the new routing can not only enlarge traffic capacity of networks more, but also enhance traffic efficiency with smaller average path length. Comparing results of previous routing strategies, it is shown that the present improved routing performs more effectively.     

Ranking the spreading influence in complex networks

Identifying the node spreading influence in networks is an important task to optimally use the network structure and ensure the more efficient spreading in information. In this paper, by taking into account the shortest distance between a target node and the node set with the highest k$k$-core value, we present an improved method to generate the ranking list to evaluate the node spreading influence. Comparing with the epidemic process results for four real networks and the Barabási–Albert network, the parameterless method could identify the node spreading influence more accurately than the ones generated by the degree k$k$, closeness centrality, k$k$-shell and mixed degree decomposition methods. This work would be helpful for deeply understanding the node importance of a network.     

Probability routing strategy for scale-free networks

This study proposes a probability routing strategy for improving traffic capability on scale-free networks. Compared with the shortest path routing strategy depending on central nodes largely and the efficient routing strategy avoiding hub routers as much as possible, the probability routing strategy makes use of hub routers more efficiently, transferring approximate average amount of packs of the whole network. Simulation results indicate that the probability routing strategy has the highest network capacity among the three routing strategies. This strategy provides network capacity that can be more than 30 times higher than that of the shortest path routing strategy and over 50% higher than that of the efficient routing strategy. In addition, the average routing path length of our proposed strategy is over 10% shorter than that of the efficient routing strategy and only about 10% longer than that of the shortest path routing strategy.     

Global forward-predicting dynamic routing for traffic concurrency space stereo multi-layer scale-free network

Many real communication networks, such as oceanic monitoring network and land environment observation network,can be described as space stereo multi-layer structure, and the traffic in these networks is concurrent. Understanding how traffic dynamics depend on these real communication networks and finding an effective routing strategy that can fit the circumstance of traffic concurrency and enhance the network performance are necessary. In this light, we propose a traffic model for space stereo multi-layer complex network and introduce two kinds of global forward-predicting dynamic routing strategies, global forward-predicting hybrid minimum queue(HMQ) routing strategy and global forward-predicting hybrid minimum degree and queue(HMDQ) routing strategy, for traffic concurrency space stereo multi-layer scale-free networks. By applying forward-predicting strategy, the proposed routing strategies achieve better performances in traffic concurrency space stereo multi-layer scale-free networks. Compared with the efficient routing strategy and global dynamic routing strategy, HMDQ and HMQ routing strategies can optimize the traffic distribution, alleviate the number of congested packets effectively and reach much higher network capacity.     

Routing strategies in traffic network and phase transition in network traffic flow

The dynamics of information traffic over scale-free networks has been investigated systematically. A series of routing strategies of data packets have been proposed, including the local routing strategy, the next-nearest-neighbour routing strategy, and the mixed routing strategy based on local static and dynamic information. The capacity of the network can be quantified by the phase transition from free flow state to congestion state. The optimal parameter values of each model leading to the highest efficiency of scale-free networked traffic systems have been found. Moreover, we have found hysteretic loop in networked traffic systems with finite packets delivering ability. Such hysteretic loop indicates the existence of the bi-stable state in the traffic dynamics over scale-free networks.      

The effect of TTL on the information traffic

In real communication protocols, the information packets have a finite Time-to-Live (TTL) to avoid the waste of network resources, such as infinite loop induced by routing error or too long transferring time. In this paper, we introduce TTL into the information traffic model on Barabási-Albert scale-free networks under local routing strategy and focus on its effect on the network capacity measured by the critical point (R_c) of phase transition from free flow to congestion. Simulations show that the network capacity and the communication velocity are improved. However, some packets are dropped before they arrived at destinations. It is found that the share of successfully arrived packets monotonously increases with the increment of TTL and it is considerably acceptable if TTL is not very small. We also examine the effect of TTL on the positive-feedback preference (PFP) internet model and the results are alike. Our work may be helpful in quantifying the effect of packet lifetime in real communication networks and in routing strategy designing.