Synchronization analysis of directed complex networks with time-delayed dynamical nodes and impulsive effects

In this paper, the effect of impulses on the synchronization of a class of general delayed dynamical networks is analyzed. The network topology is assumed to be directed and weakly connected with a spanning tree. Two types of impulses occurred in the states of nodes are considered: (i) synchronizing impulses meaning that they can enhance the synchronization of dynamical networks; and (ii) desynchronizing impulses defined as the impulsive effects can suppress the synchronization of dynamical networks. For each type of impulses, some novel and less conservative globally exponential synchronization criteria are derived by using the concept of average impulsive interval and the comparison principle. It is shown that the derived criteria are closely related with impulse strengths, average impulsive interval, and topology structure of the networks. The obtained results not only can provide an effective impulsive control strategy to synchronize an arbitrary given delayed dynamical network even if the original network may be asynchronous itself but also indicate that under which impulsive perturbations globally exponential synchronization of the underlying delayed dynamical networks can be preserved. Numerical simulations are finally given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.