A Link Importance Evaluation Method Based on the Characteristic of Network Communication

A method for finding the most vital edge based on the characteristic of network communication is proposed. The link importance is determined by its using frequency in all-pairs shortest paths of a network and the most vital edge results in the highest frequency. Without the commonly used edge-deletion and edge-contraction methods, the proposed algorithm directly reflects the edge´s contribution to the network communication and the relative importance of each pair of edges in the network can be compared. The algorithm analyses and the experimental results show that this algorithm overcomes the currently existent problems and provides a more reasonable principle for ranking edges which is consistent with our intuitive judgments.