Two-dimensional small-world networks: navigation with local information

Abstract

Navigation process is studied on a variant of the Watts-Strogatz small world network model embedded on a square lattice. With probability $p$, each vertex sends out a long range link, and the probability of the other end of this link falling on a vertex at lattice distance $r$ away decays as $ r^{-α}$. Vertices on the network have knowledge of only their nearest neighbors. In a navigation process, messages are forwarded to a designated target. For $α<3$ and $α\neq 2$, a scaling relation is found between the average actual path length and $pL$, where $L$ is the average length of the additional long range links. Given $pL>1$, dynamic small world effect is observed, and the behavior of the scaling function at large enough $pL$ is obtained. At $α=2$ and 3, this kind of scaling breaks down, and different functions of the average actual path length are obtained. For $α>3$, the average actual path length is nearly linear with network size.