Navigability of interconnected networks under random failures

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1318469111
• Publication Date: 2014-05-28T06:22:54Z
• Authors: Manlio De Domenico; Albert Solé-Ribalta; Sergio Gómez; Alex Arenas
• Keywords: Computer Communication Networks; Information Dissemination; London; Humans; Computer Simulation; Transportation; Models, Theoretical; Community Networks; Algorithms

Significance Network theory has been exploited in the last decades to deepen our comprehension of complex systems. However, real-world complex systems exhibit multiple levels of relationships and require modeling by interconnected networks, characterizing interactions on several levels simultaneously. Questions such as “what is the efficiency of exploration of a city using the multiple transportation layers, like subway and bus?” and “what is its resilience to failures?” have to be answered using the multiplex framework. Here, we introduce fundamental mechanisms to perform such exploration, using random walks on multilayer networks, and we show how the topological structure, together with the navigation strategy, influences the efficiency in exploring the whole structure.