Local Information Based Algorithms for Packet Transport in Complex Networks

We introduce four algorithms for packet transport in complex networks. These algorithms use deterministic rules which depend, in different ways, on the degree of the node, the number of packets posted down each edge, the mean delivery time of packets sent down each edge to each destination and the time since an edge last transmitted a packet. On scale-free networks all our algorithms are considerably more efficient and can handle a larger load than the random walk algorithm. We consider in detail various attributes of our algorithms, for instance we show that an algorithm that bases its decisions on the mean delivery time jams unless it incorporates information about the degree of the destination node.