Developmental time windows for spatial growth generate multiple-cluster small-world networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a developmental time window model for spatial network growth, showing how timing and pioneer node placement influence the emergence of small-world, multi-cluster networks, differing from traditional scale-free models.

Contribution

It proposes a novel developmental time window approach to generate multi-cluster small-world networks, highlighting the importance of timing and pioneer node positioning.

Findings

Time windows lead to multi-cluster small-world networks.

Overlap of time windows affects network topology.

Pioneer node placement influences network structure.

Abstract

Many networks extent in space, may it be metric (e.g. geographic) or non-metric (ordinal). Spatial network growth, which depends on the distance between nodes, can generate a wide range of topologies from small-world to linear scale-free networks. However, networks often lacked multiple clusters or communities. Multiple clusters can be generated, however, if there are time windows during development. Time windows ensure that regions of the network develop connections at different points in time. This novel approach could generate small-world but not scale-free networks. The resulting topology depended critically on the overlap of time windows as well as on the position of pioneer nodes.