Local attachment in networks under churn

TL;DR

This paper introduces a local attachment protocol for networks that naturally produces power-law degree distributions through local information, supporting stable and scalable network topologies in dynamic environments.

Contribution

It presents a universal local attachment protocol that generates power-law networks and analyzes their properties through extensive simulations and modeling.

Findings

Power-law degree distributions emerge from local attachment.

Network properties correlate with exponents and scaling relations.

Local attachment can be integrated into peer-to-peer protocols for stability.

Abstract

In this contribution we introduce local attachment as an universal network-joining protocol for peer-to-peer networks, social networks, or other kinds of networks. Based on this protocol nodes in a finite-size network dynamically create power-law connectivity distributions. Nodes or peers maintain them in a self-organized statistical way by incorporating local information only. We investigate the structural and macroscopic properties of such local attachment networks by extensive numerical simulations, including correlations and scaling relations between exponents. The emergence of the power-law degree distribution is further investigated by considering preferential attachment with a nonlinear attractiveness function as an approximative model for local attachment. This study suggests the local attachment scheme as a procedure to be included in future peer-to-peer protocols to enable the efficient production of stable network topologies in a continuously changing environment.