Controllability Of Complex Networks Research Articles

Control of complex networks requires both structure and dynamics.

The study of network structure has uncovered signatures of the organization of complex systems. However, there is also a need to understand how to control them; for example, identifying strategies to revert a diseased cell to a healthy state, or a mature cell to a pluripotent state. Two recent methodologies suggest that the controllability of complex systems can be predicted solely from the graph of interactions between variables, without considering their dynamics: structural controllability and minimum dominating sets. We demonstrate that such structure-only methods fail to characterize controllability when dynamics are introduced. We study Boolean network ensembles of network motifs as well as three models of biochemical regulation: the segment polarity network in Drosophila melanogaster, the cell cycle of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the floral organ arrangement in Arabidopsis thaliana. We demonstrate that structure-only methods both undershoot and overshoot the number and which sets of critical variables best control the dynamics of these models, highlighting the importance of the actual system dynamics in determining control. Our analysis further shows that the logic of automata transition functions, namely how canalizing they are, plays an important role in the extent to which structure predicts dynamics.

A geometrical approach to control and controllability of nonlinear dynamical networks.

In spite of the recent interest and advances in linear controllability of complex networks, controlling nonlinear network dynamics remains an outstanding problem. Here we develop an experimentally feasible control framework for nonlinear dynamical networks that exhibit multistability. The control objective is to apply parameter perturbation to drive the system from one attractor to another, assuming that the former is undesired and the latter is desired. To make our framework practically meaningful, we consider restricted parameter perturbation by imposing two constraints: it must be experimentally realizable and applied only temporarily. We introduce the concept of attractor network, which allows us to formulate a quantifiable controllability framework for nonlinear dynamical networks: a network is more controllable if the attractor network is more strongly connected. We test our control framework using examples from various models of experimental gene regulatory networks and demonstrate the beneficial role of noise in facilitating control.

Towards structural controllability of local-world networks

Controlling complex networks is of vital importance in science and engineering. Meanwhile, local-world effect is an important ingredient which should be taken into consideration in the complete description of real-world complex systems. In this letter, structural controllability of a class of local-world networks is investigated. Through extensive numerical simulations, firstly, effects of local world size M and network size N on structural controllability are examined. For local-world networks with sparse topological configuration, compared to network size, local-world size can induce stronger influence on controllability, however, for dense networks, controllability is greatly affected by network size and local-world effect can be neglected. Secondly, relationships between controllability and topological properties are analyzed. Lastly, the robustness of local-world networks under targeted attacks regarding structural controllability is discussed. These results can help to deepen the understanding of structural complexity and connectivity patterns of complex systems.

Energy scaling and reduction in controlling complex networks.

Recent works revealed that the energy required to control a complex network depends on the number of driving signals and the energy distribution follows an algebraic scaling law. If one implements control using a small number of drivers, e.g. as determined by the structural controllability theory, there is a high probability that the energy will diverge. We develop a physical theory to explain the scaling behaviour through identification of the fundamental structural elements, the longest control chains (LCCs), that dominate the control energy. Based on the LCCs, we articulate a strategy to drastically reduce the control energy (e.g. in a large number of real-world networks). Owing to their structural nature, the LCCs may shed light on energy issues associated with control of nonlinear dynamical networks.

Characterizing the topological and controllability features of U.S. power transmission networks

Understanding the controllability of complex networks continues to gain traction across disciplinary fields, including the exploration of infrastructure systems such as power grids. Through topological principles, this paper investigates the controllability features of an ensemble of 58 U.S. city-level power transmission networks in seven U.S. states. To perform structural controllability analyses, the topological characteristics of the ensemble of networks are first quantified, including degree, shortest path length, clustering coefficient, meshedness and betweenness centrality, as well as the uncertainty associated with these and related properties. Then, the paper focuses on the controllability features of complex networks so as to detect the minimal sets of driver nodes to possibly control the networks given system linearity assumptions. Accordingly, a node is critical, intermittent or redundant if it acts as a driver node in all, some, or none of the potentially controllable system configurations. Moreover, this paper constructs a new methodology to quantify the probability of being a driver node among the intermittent nodes, and reveals the controllability importance of system components. Results show that a small proportion of driver nodes can provide the conditions for controlling the slow dynamics of entire power transmission networks from a topological perspective, despite variations in network sizes and configurations. This paper also reveals that the driver nodes tend to avoid high degree nodes and high triangulation sub-graph nodes as well as high betweenness centrality nodes. The identification of topological differences for different categories of nodes (critical, intermittent or redundant) could help researchers and utilities understand the conditions for future functional controllability of power networks while improving their reliability and resilience as well as facilitating their transition into smart grid systems.

Crosstalk between pathways enhances the controllability of signalling networks.

The control of complex networks is one of the most challenging problems in the fields of biology and engineering. In this study, the authors explored the controllability and control energy of several signalling networks, which consisted of many interconnected pathways, including networks with a bow-tie architecture. On the basis of the theory of structure controllability, they revealed that biological mechanisms, such as cross-pathway interactions, compartmentalisation and so on make the networks easier to fully control. Furthermore, using numerical simulations for two realistic examples, they demonstrated that the control energy of normal networks with crosstalk is lower than in networks without crosstalk. These results indicate that the biological networks are optimally designed to achieve their normal functions from the viewpoint of the control theory. The authors' work provides a comprehensive understanding of the impact of network structures and properties on controllability.

Synchronization and control in time-delayed complex networks and spatio-temporal patterns

This special topics issue is a collection of contributions on the recent developments of control and synchronization in time delayed systems and space time chaos. The various articles report interesting results on time delayed complex networks; fractional order delayed models; dynamics of spatio-temporal patterns; stochastic models etc. Experimental analysis on synchronization, dynamics and control of chaos are also well investigated using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), circuit realizations and chemical reactions.

Estimating the minimum control count of random network models.

The study of controllability of complex networks has introduced the minimum number of controls required for full controllability as a new network measure of interest. This network measure, like many others, is non-trivial to compute. As a result, establishing the significance of minimum control counts (MCCs) in real networks using random network null models is expensive. Here we derive analytic estimates for the expected MCCs of networks drawn from three commonly-used random network models. Our estimates show good agreement with exact control counts. Furthermore, the analytic expressions we derive offer insights into the structures within each random network model that induce the need for controls.

Business Process Study of Change in Organizational Structure: Using Complex Network Controllability

Business Process Study of Change in Organizational Structure: Using Complex Network Controllability

Pinning Controllability Scheme of Directed Complex Delayed Dynamical Networks via Periodically Intermittent Control

This paper studies the pinning controllability of directed complex delayed dynamical networks by using periodic intermittent control scheme. The general and low-dimensional pinning synchronization criteria are derived to illustrate the design of periodic intermittent control scheme. According to our low-dimensional pinning criterion, especially, the constraint condition of coupling strength is obtained when the network structure and amounts of pinned nodes are fixed. An algorithm is presented to determine the amounts of periodically intermittent controllers and locate these intermittent controllers in a directed network, in which the significance of nodes out- (in-) degree in pinning control of complex network is also illustrated. Finally, a directed network consisting of 12 coupled delayed Chua oscillators is designed as numerical example to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.

Optimizing the controllability of arbitrary networks with genetic algorithm

Recently, as the controllability of complex networks attracts much attention, how to optimize networks’ controllability has become a common and urgent problem. In this paper, we develop an efficient genetic algorithm oriented optimization tool to optimize the controllability of arbitrary networks consisting of both state nodes and control nodes under Popov–Belevitch–Hautus rank condition. The experimental results on a number of benchmark networks show the effectiveness of this method and the evolution of network topology is captured. Furthermore, we explore how network structure affects its controllability and find that the sparser a network is, the more control nodes are needed to control it and the larger the differences between node degrees, the more control nodes are needed to achieve the full control. Our framework provides an alternative to controllability optimization and can be applied to arbitrary networks without any limitations.

Minimum-cost control of complex networks

Finding the solution for driving a complex network at the minimum energy cost with a given number of controllers, known as the minimum-cost control problem, is critically important but remains largely open. We propose a projected gradient method to tackle this problem, which works efficiently in both synthetic and real-life networks. The study is then extended to the case where each controller can only be connected to a single network node to have the lowest connection complexity. We obtain the interesting insight that such connections basically avoid high-degree nodes of the network, which is in resonance with recent observations on controllability of complex networks. Our results provide the first technical path to enabling minimum-cost control of complex networks, and contribute new insights to locating the key nodes from a minimum-cost control perspective.

Complex fluid network optimization and control integrative design based on nonlinear dynamic model

In view of distribution according to complex fluid network’s needs, this paper proposed one optimization computation method of the nonlinear programming mathematical model based on genetic algorithm. The simulation result shows that the overall energy consumption of the optimized fluid network has a decrease obviously. The control model of the fluid network is established based on nonlinear dynamics. We design the control law based on feedback linearization, take the optimal value by genetic algorithm as the simulation data, can also solve the branch resistance under the optimal value. These resistances can provide technical support and reference for fluid network design and construction, so can realize complex fluid network optimization and control integration design.

Enhancing speed of pinning synchronizability: low-degree nodes with high feedback gains.

Controlling complex networks is of paramount importance in science and engineering. Despite recent efforts to improve controllability and synchronous strength, little attention has been paid to the speed of pinning synchronizability (rate of convergence in pinning control) and the corresponding pinning node selection. To address this issue, we propose a hypothesis to restrict the control cost, then build a linear matrix inequality related to the speed of pinning controllability. By solving the inequality, we obtain both the speed of pinning controllability and optimal control strength (feedback gains in pinning control) for all nodes. Interestingly, some low-degree nodes are able to achieve large feedback gains, which suggests that they have high influence on controlling system. In addition, when choosing nodes with high feedback gains as pinning nodes, the controlling speed of real systems is remarkably enhanced compared to that of traditional large-degree and large-betweenness selections. Thus, the proposed approach provides a novel way to investigate the speed of pinning controllability and can evoke other effective heuristic pinning node selections for large-scale systems.

Effect of edge pruning on structural controllability and observability of complex networks.

Controllability and observability of complex systems are vital concepts in many fields of science. The network structure of the system plays a crucial role in determining its controllability and observability. Because most naturally occurring complex systems show dynamic changes in their network connectivity, it is important to understand how perturbations in the connectivity affect the controllability of the system. To this end, we studied the control structure of different types of artificial, social and biological neuronal networks (BNN) as their connections were progressively pruned using four different pruning strategies. We show that the BNNs are more similar to scale-free networks than to small-world networks, when comparing the robustness of their control structure to structural perturbations. We introduce a new graph descriptor, ‘the cardinality curve’, to quantify the robustness of the control structure of a network to progressive edge pruning. Knowing the susceptibility of control structures to different pruning methods could help design strategies to destroy the control structures of dangerous networks such as epidemic networks. On the other hand, it could help make useful networks more resistant to edge attacks.

ESTIMATION OF CONTROL ENERGY AND CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR COMPLEX NETWORKS

The controlling of complex networks is one of the most challenging problems in modern network science. Accordingly, the required energy cost of control is a fundamental and significant problem. In this paper, we present the theoretical analysis and numerical simulations to study the controllability of complex networks from the energy perspective. First, by combining theoretical derivation and numerical simulations, we obtain lower bounds of the maximal and minimal energy costs for an arbitrary normal network, which are related to the eigenvalues of the state transition matrix. Second, we deduce that controlling unstable normal networks is easier than controlling stable normal networks with the same size. Third, we demonstrate a tradeoff between the control energy and the average degree (or the maximum degree) of an arbitrary undirected network. Fourth, numerical simulations show that the energy cost is negatively correlated with the degree of nodes. Moreover, the combinations of control nodes with the greater sum of degree need less energy to implement complete control. Finally, we propose a multi-objective optimization model to obtain the control strategy, which not only ensures the fewer control nodes but also guarantees the less energy cost of control.

Minimum structural controllability problems of complex networks

Controllability of complex networks has been one of the attractive research areas for both network and control community, and has yielded many promising and significant results in minimum inputs and minimum driver vertices. However, few studies have been devoted to studying the minimum controlled vertex set through which control over the network with arbitrary structure can be achieved. In this paper, we prove that the minimum driver vertices driven by different inputs are not sufficient to ensure the full control of the network when the associated graph contains the inaccessible strongly connected component which has perfect matching and propose an algorithm to identify a minimum controlled vertex set for network with arbitrary structure using convenient graph and mathematical tools. And the simulation results show that the controllability of network is correlated to the number of inaccessible strongly connected components which have perfect matching and these results promote us to better understand the relationship between the network’s structural characteristics and its control.

Critical Nodes Identification of Power Systems Based on Controllability of Complex Networks

This paper proposes a new method for assessing the vulnerability of power systems based on the controllability theories of complex networks. A novel controllability index is established, taking into consideration the full controllability of the power systems, for identifying critical nodes. The network controllability model is used to calculate the minimum number of driver nodes (ND), which can solve the computable problems of the controllability of power systems. The proposed approach firstly applies the network controllability theories to research the power systems' vulnerability, which can not only effectively reveal the important nodes but also maintain full control of the power systems. Meanwhile, the method can also overcome the limitation of the hypothesis that the weight of each link or transmission line must be known compared with the existing literature. In addition, the power system is considered as a directed network and the power system model is also redefined. The proposed methodology is then used to identify critical nodes of the IEEE 118 and 300 bus system. The results show that the failure of the critical nodes can clearly increase ND and lead a significant driver node shift. Thus, the rationality and validity are verified.

Controlling complex networks with conformity behavior

Controlling complex networks accompanied by common conformity behavior is a fundamental problem in social and physical science. Conformity behavior that individuals tend to follow the majority in their neighborhood is common in human society and animal communities. Despite recent progress in understanding controllability of complex networks, the existent controllability theories cannot be directly applied to networks associated with conformity. Here we propose a simple model to incorporate conformity-based decision making into the evolution of a network system, which allows us to employ the exact controllability theory to explore the controllability of such systems. We offer rigorous theoretical results of controllability for representative regular networks. We also explore real networks in different fields and some typical model networks, finding some interesting results that are different from the predictions of structural and exact controllability theory in the absence of conformity. We finally present an example of steering a real social network to some target states to further validate our controllability theory and tools. Our work offers a more realistic understanding of network controllability with conformity behavior and can have potential applications in networked evolutionary games, opinion dynamics and many other complex networked systems.

Effects of Edge Directions on the Structural Controllability of Complex Networks.

Recent advances indicate that assigning or reversing edge direction can significantly improve the structural controllability of complex networks. For directed networks, approaching the optimal structural controllability can be achieved by detecting and reversing certain “inappropriate” edge directions. However, the existence of multiple sets of “inappropriate” edge directions suggests that different edges have different effects on optimal controllability—that is, different combinations of edges can be reversed to achieve the same structural controllability. Therefore, we classify edges into three categories based on their direction: critical, redundant and intermittent. We then investigate the effects of changing these edge directions on network controllability, and demonstrate that the existence of more critical edge directions implies not only a lower cost of modifying inappropriate edges but also better controllability. Motivated by this finding, we present a simple edge orientation method aimed at producing more critical edge directions—utilizing only local information—which achieves near optimal controllability. Furthermore, we explore the effects of edge direction on the controllability of several real networks.