Percolation centrality: quantifying graph-theoretic impact of nodes during percolation in networks

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53095. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053095. Epub 2013 Jan 22.

Abstract

A number of centrality measures are available to determine the relative importance of a node in a complex network, and betweenness is prominent among them. However, the existing centrality measures are not adequate in network percolation scenarios (such as during infection transmission in a social network of individuals, spreading of computer viruses on computer networks, or transmission of disease over a network of towns) because they do not account for the changing percolation states of individual nodes. We propose a new measure, percolation centrality, that quantifies relative impact of nodes based on their topological connectivity, as well as their percolation states. The measure can be extended to include random walk based definitions, and its computational complexity is shown to be of the same order as that of betweenness centrality. We demonstrate the usage of percolation centrality by applying it to a canonical network as well as simulated and real world scale-free and random networks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Graphics*
  • Computers
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Social Support
  • Stochastic Processes

Grants and funding

The work was not specifically funded by any grant. The University of Sydney and the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization support the positions of the authors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.