Enhancing traffic capacity of two-layer networks by link deletion

Two-layer or multilayer networks can more accurately reveal the transmission dynamics of the actual network and increase the traffic capacity. Therefore, we considered optimising the physical layer topology of the two-layer network, and proposed a link deletion strategy at the physical layer. The nodes with maximum weight ( $$k_i$$ * $$k_j$$ ) were deleted, where $$k_i$$ and $$k_j$$ are the degrees of nodes i and j, respectively, and the traffic load was redistributed from the central node to the non-central nodes. The simulation results showed that the strategy significantly increased the network traffic capacity. In two-layer network model, the logical layer network structure is unchanged and the shortest path routing strategy is used.