General Dynamics of Topology and Traffic on Weighted Technological Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a traffic-driven evolution model for weighted technological networks, demonstrating how traffic and topology co-evolve to produce power-law distributions and network properties consistent with real-world data.

Contribution

It presents a novel general strength-coupling mechanism modeling the mutual interaction of traffic and topology in network evolution.

Findings

Power-law distributions of degree, weight, and strength are confirmed.

Network properties like clustering coefficient and assortativity match empirical data.

The model's parameter W controls total weight growth and influences network structure.

Abstract

For most technical networks, the interplay of dynamics, traffic and topology is assumed crucial to their evolution. In this paper, we propose a traffic-driven evolution model of weighted technological networks. By introducing a general strength-coupling mechanism under which the traffic and topology mutually interact, the model gives power-law distributions of degree, weight and strength, as confirmed in many real networks. Particularly, depending on a parameter W that controls the total weight growth of the system, the nontrivial clustering coefficient C, degree assortativity coefficient r and degree-strength correlation are all in consistence with empirical evidences.