Analyses of the response of a complex weighted network to nodes removal strategies considering links weight: The case of the Beijing urban road system

Abstract

Complex network response to node loss is a central question in different fields of science ranging from physics, sociology, biology to ecology. Previous studies considered binary networks where the weight of the links is not accounted for. However, in real-world networks the weights of connections can be widely different. Here, we analyzed the response of real-world road traffic complex network of Beijing, the most prosperous city in China. We produced nodes removal attack simulations using classic binary node features and we introduced weighted ranks for node importance. We measured the network functioning during nodes removal with three different parameters: the size of the largest connected cluster (LCC), the binary network efficiency (Bin EFF) and the weighted network efficiency (Weg EFF). We find that removing nodes according to weighted rank, i.e. considering the weight of the links as a number of taxi flows along the roads, produced in general the highest damage in the system. Our results show that: (i) in order to model Beijing road complex networks response to nodes (intersections) failure, it is necessary to consider the weight of the links; (ii) to discover the best attack strategy, it is important to use nodes rank accounting links weight.