Load analysis in correlated scale-free networked systems

This paper investigates how the load distribution varies in the correlated scale-free networked systems, where the load going through one vertex or edge is quantified by the betweenness centrality (BC) which represents the amount of shortest paths passing through this vertex or edge. The correlation between degree and BC becomes weaker when the degree correlation of the scale-free networks varies from disassortativity to assortativity without changing their degree distributions. Hence, the load distribution in the assortative networks becomes homogenous, leading to the fact that these assortative networks are more robust against attacks based on vertex BCs. Moreover, the degrees of the skeleton, which is a spanning tree formed by a set of edges with the highest BCs, are more dependent on the BCs than the degrees of its original network.