Degree Distribution, and Scale-free networks Prof. Ralucca Gera, Applied Mathematics Dept. Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California
[email protected] Excellence Through Knowledge Learning Outcomes Understand the degree distributions of observed networks Understand Scale Free networks Power law degree distribution Versus exponential, log-normal, … 2 Degree Distribution Excellence Through Knowledge Degree distributions • The degree distribution is a frequency distribution of the degree sequence • We define pk to be the fraction of vertices in a network that have degree k • That is the same as saying: pk is the probability that a randomly selected node of the network will have degree k 1 2 4 2 1 p , p , p , p , p , p 0k 5 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 k • A well connected vertex is called a hub 4 Plot of the degree distribution The Internet Commonly seen plots of real networks Right-skewed • Many nodes with small degrees, few with extremely high – Largest degree is 2407 (not shown). Since 19956 this node is adjacent to 12% of the network 5 Degree distribution in directed networks • For directed networks we have both in- and out-degree distributions. The Web 6 Observed networks are SF (power law) • Power laws appear frequently in sciences: • Pareto : income distribution, 1897 • Zipf-Auerbach: city sizes, 1913/1940’s • Zipf-Estouf: word frequency, 1916/1940’s • Lotka: bibliometrics, 1926 • Yule: species and genera, 1924. • Mandelbrot: economics/information theory, 1950’s+ • Research claims that observed real networks are scale free, not consistent defn., [ref. 1–7], i.e. – The fraction of nodes of degree follows a power law distribution , where 1, – Generally being observed ∈ 2, 3 , see [ref.