Issue Europhys. Lett. Volume 69, Number 5, March 2005 Page(s) 853 - 859 Section Interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology DOI 10.1209/epl/i2004-10422-0 Published online 11 February 2005

Europhys. Lett., 69 (5), pp. 853-859 (2005)
DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2004-10422-0

Hide-and-seek on complex networks

K. Sneppen¹, A. Trusina^{1, 2} and M. Rosvall<sup>1, 2

1</sup>  NORDITA - Blegdamsvej 17, Dk 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
²  Department of Theoretical Physics, Umeå University - 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

sneppen@nbi.dk

received 15 September 2004; accepted in final form 24 December 2004
published online 11 February 2005

Abstract
Signaling pathways and networks determine the ability to communicate in systems ranging from living cells to human society. We investigate how the network structure constrains communication in social, man-made and biological networks. We find that human networks of governance and collaboration have predictable communication on tête-à-tête level, reflecting well-defined pathways. In contrast, communication pathways in the Internet are more distributed. For molecular networks, the communication ability in the single-celled yeast resembles the one of human networks, whereas the more complicated Drosophila is closer to the Internet. For all investigated networks, the global communication is worse than for their random counterparts, reflecting the fact that long-distance communication is disfavored.

PACS
89.70.+c - Information theory and communication theory.
89.75.Fb - Structures and organization in complex systems.
87.80.Vt - Dynamical, regulatory, and integrative biology.

© EDP Sciences 2005

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