Influential Node Identification in Command and Control Networks Based on Integral k-Shell

Abstract

Influential nodes act as a hub for information transmission in a command and control network. The identification of influential nodes in a network of this nature is a significant and challenging task; however, it is necessary if the invulnerability of the network is to be increased. The existing k-shell method is problematic in that it features a coarse sorting granularity and does not consider the local centrality of nodes. Thus, the degree of accuracy with which the influential nodes can be identified is relatively low. This motivates us to propose a method based on an integral k-shell to identify the influential nodes in a command and control network. This new method takes both the global and local information of nodes into account, introduces the historical k-shell and a 2-order neighboring degree, and refines the k-shell decomposition process in a network. Simulation analysis is carried out from two perspectives: to determine the impact on network performance when influential nodes are removed and to obtain the correlation between the integral k-shell value and its propagation value. The simulation results show that the integral k-shell method, which employs an algorithm of lower complexity, accurately identifies the influence of those nodes with the same k-shell values. Furthermore, the method significantly improves the accuracy with which the influential nodes can be identified.