Growing networks under geographical constraints

Abstract

Inspired by the structure of technological networks, we discuss network evolution mechanisms which give rise to topological properties found in real spatial networks. Thus, the peculiar structure of transport and distribution networks is fundamentally determined by two factors. These are the dependence of the spatial interaction range of vertices on the vertex attractiveness (or importance within the network) and on the inhomogeneous distribution of vertices in space. We propose and analyse numerically a simple model based on these generating mechanisms which seems, for instance, to be able to reproduce known structural features of the Internet.