14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists all around the world are beginning to realize that the more we understand the subtle or major differences that occur within random networks, the more we will be able to control and use them to our benefit. For example, US researchers name the Internet and the global flight connections as some of these networked systems, whose glitches can do a lot of harm if they are not foreseen, or if they are beyond the control of the people in charge of them.
In order to simulate potential paths of development for the Internet, which is the fastest-growing such network, University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC) researcher Dimitris Achlioptas has conducted a series of experiments in which he has attempted to connect several points to many paths of communication, in a layout very similar to that of the Internet itself. At this point, the Web is growing uncontrollably, in that more and more computers are simply added to it.
But a trend is visible within the core of the global network, seeing how a number of connections is beginning to organize itself in a “backbone” of sorts, a series of paths that make it easier for information to get from one point to another, despite the distance. The weird thing is that data travels faster through this embedded set of links than it would otherwise, if the Internet would have remained unorganized, as in the backbone wouldn't have formed.
However, since it did, it can now be safely named a fully-connected structure, the researchers say. But, just as in a game of Buckaroo, when the Web reaches this critical stage, the changes inside it do not happen gradually, but all at once, in an explosive manner. In their experiments, the scientists have constructed a smaller version of the Internet in such a manner that only a few regions of the network have been connected.
Each of these areas contained several nodes, which had no link to the other regions directly. But when a seemingly unimportant one was added, it was proven that the entire structure rearranged itself almost instantly, becoming fully integrated. New types of connections were formed, where before there were none. “We know that for some networks, like the Internet, connectivity is a fundamental desired property. For others, like a virus spreading through a network of humans or computers, connectivity is a liability,” University of California in Davis (UCD) researcher Raissa D'Souza shares.
She adds that the finds could have applications in real-life, as for example in the case of an epidemic outbreak. Understanding how random networks, such as those that bind people in friendship, work could yield solutions for stopping a disease from spreading.