Scaling properties in spatial networks and their effects on topology and traffic dynamics

Department of Systems Science, School of Management, Beijing Normal University - Beijing 100875, PRC

Corresponding authors: yanqing.hu.sc@gmail.com zdi@bnu.edu.cn

Received: 18 August 2009
Accepted: 16 February 2010

Abstract

Empirical studies on the spatial structures in several real transport networks reveal that the distance distribution in these networks obeys a power law. To discuss the influence of the power law exponent on the network's structure and function, a spatial-network model is proposed. Based on a regular network and subject to a limited cost C, long-range connections are added with power law distance distribution P(r) = ar^-δ. Some basic topological properties of the networks generated by the model with different δ are studied. It is found that the network has the smallest average shortest path when δ = 2. Then a classic traffic model on our model networks is investigated. It is found that δ = 1.5 is the optimization value for the traffic process in our model. All of these results give us some deep understanding about the relationship between spatial structure and network function.