Self-organized transport in noisy dynamic networks

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates how noise influences self-organization in nonlinear, noisy networks, revealing that noise can lead to more robust topologies and diverse dynamic behaviors depending on the nonlinear functions involved.

Contribution

It demonstrates that noise can induce self-organization into robust network topologies and explores how different nonlinear functions affect this process.

Findings

Noise induces self-organization into robust topologies.

Different nonlinear functions lead to varied dynamic responses.

The activation function critically influences noise-assisted phenomena.

Abstract

We present a numerical study of multi-commodity transport in a noisy, nonlinear network. The nonlinearity determines the dynamics of the edge capacities, which can be amplified or suppressed depending on the local current flowing across an edge. We consider network self-organization for three different nonlinear functions: For all three we identify parameter regimes where noise leads to self-organization into more robust topologies, that are not found by the sole noiseless dynamics. Moreover, the interplay between noise and specific functional behavior of the nonlinearity gives rise to different features, such as (i) continuous or discontinuous responses to the demand strength and (ii) either single or multi-stable solutions. Our study shows the crucial role of the activation function on noise-assisted phenomena.