Self-organization of balanced nodes in random networks with transportation bandwidths

We apply statistical physics to study the task of resource allocation in random networks with limited bandwidths along the transportation links. The mean-field approach is applicable when the connectivity is sufficiently high. It allows us to derive the resource shortage of a node as a well-defined function of its capacity. For networks with uniformly high connectivity, an efficient profile of the allocated resources is obtained, which exhibits features similar to the Maxwell construction. These results have good agreements with simulations, where nodes self-organize to balance their shortages, forming extensive clusters of nodes interconnected by unsaturated links. The deviations from the mean-field analyses show that nodes are likely to be rich in the locality of gifted neighbors. In scale-free networks, hubs make sacrifice for enhanced balancing of nodes with low connectivity. Copyright © 2010 EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.