Transport between multiple users in complex networks

Abstract

We study the transport properties of model networks such as scale-free and Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi networks as well as a real network. We consider the conductance $G$ between two arbitrarily chosen nodes where each link has the same unit resistance. Our theoretical analysis for scale-free networks predicts a broad range of values of $G$, with a power-law tail distribution $\Phi_{\rm SF}(G)\sim G^{-g_G}$, where $g_G=2\lambda -1$, and $\lambda$ is the decay exponent for the scale-free network degree distribution. We confirm our predictions by large scale simulations. The power-law tail in $\Phi_{\rm SF}(G)$ leads to large values of $G$, thereby significantly improving the transport in scale-free networks, compared to Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi networks where the tail of the conductivity distribution decays exponentially. We develop a simple physical picture of the transport to account for the results. We study another model for transport, the \emph{max-flow} model, where conductance is defined as the number of link-independent paths between the two nodes, and find that a similar picture holds. The effects of distance on the value of conductance are considered for both models, and some differences emerge. We then extend our study to the case of multiple sources, where the transport is define between two \emph{groups} of nodes. We find a fundamental difference between the two forms of flow when considering the quality of the transport with respect to the number of sources, and find an optimal number of sources, or users, for the max-flow case. A qualitative (and partially quantitative) explanation is also given.