The average path length of scale free networks

Abstract

In this paper, the exact solution of average path length in Barabási–Albert model is given. The average path length is an important property of networks and attracts much attention in many areas. The Barabási–Albert model, also called scale free model, is a popular model used in modeling real systems. Hence it is valuable for us to examine the average path length of scale free model. There are two answers, regarding the exact solution for the average path length of scale free networks, already provided by Newman and Bollobas respectively. As Newman proposed, the average path length grows as log(n) with the network size n. However, Bollobas suggested that while it was true when m=1, the answer changed to log(n)/log(log(n)) when m>1. In this paper, as we propose, the exact solution of average path length of BA model should approach log(n)/log(log(n)) regardless the value of m. Finally, the simulation is presented to show the validity of our result.