Enhancing network capacity effects of edge-removal in small-world networks

Unlike a scale-free network, a small-world network has a quite different characteristic between its betweenness distribution which embodies traffic load characteristics and degree distribution which embodies con- nection features. Based on the difference, we present an effective method to enhance network capacity by edge removals (ENCER), and the simulation results are confirmed by using relation analysis between network capacity and its maximum betweenness. Moreover, we analyze the correlation between heterogeneity of betweenness dis- tribution and effects of ENCER method, and show the heterogeneity of structure, which can be quantified by Gini coefficient, is a prerequisite of the method. This paper shows that the ENCER method need to be realized by betweenness, rather than degree. The method as one kind of novel routing policy, which is counterintuitive, var- ied and easy to deploy in practice, can be widely applied to modern communication networks and transportation networks.