A local-world network model based on inter-node correlation degree

A new local-world model is proposed in this paper to improve and extend the descriptive ability of the first geometrical local-world network model, i.e., the Gardenes-Moreno (GM) model. A concept of correlation degree between nodes is introduced into the proposed model to build a local world of each node in a network. In consideration of the facts that each node has only a limited ability of information recognition and processing, and the improvement speed of this ability is normally far slower than the growth speed of a network, the local-world size is set limited and unchanged while the network grows. A series of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are conducted in this paper, the results show that the correlation degrees follow a power-law distribution, and the proposed model can describe the small-world, scale-free, self-similarity and clustering properties for more comprehensive kinds of complex networks than the GM model and other existing local-world network models. The modelling and analysis of a supply chain system is discussed in this paper as a real-world example of our model. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.