Eur. Phys. J. B 58, 185-191 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00214-4

Developmental time windows for spatial growth generate multiple-cluster small-world networks

¹ University of Karlsruhe, Institut für Algebra und Geometrie, Englerstr. 2, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
² School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

Corresponding author: ^a M.Kaiser@newcastle.ac.uk

Received: 4 January 2007
Published online: 10 August 2007

Abstract

Many networks extent in space, may it be metric (e.g. geographic) or non-metric (ordinal). Spatial network growth, which depends on the distance between nodes, can generate a wide range of topologies from small-world to linear scale-free networks. However, networks often lacked multiple clusters or communities. Multiple clusters can be generated, however, if there are time windows during development. Time windows ensure that regions of the network develop connections at different points in time. This novel approach could generate small-world but not scale-free networks. The resulting topology depended critically on the overlap of time windows as well as on the position of pioneer nodes.