The Geography of Internet Infrastructure: An evolutionary simulation approach based on preferential attachment

Sandra Vinciguerra (), Koen Frenken and Marco Valente

No 1006, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: We model the evolution of infrastructure networks as a preferential attachment process. We assume that geographical distance and country borders provide barriers to link formation in infrastructure networks. The model is validated against empirical data on the European Internet infrastructure network covering 209 cities. We successfully simulate the average path length and average clustering coefficient of the observed network. Furthermore, the simulated network shows a significant correlation with the observed European Internet infrastructure network. We end with a discussion on the future uses of preferential attachment models in the light of the literature on world cities and global cities.

Keywords: complex networks; preferential attachment; geographical distance; average path length; average clustering coefficient; Quadratic Assignment Proecedure; Internet; world cities; global cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 L96 O18 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2010-04, Revised 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp, nep-evo, nep-geo and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg1006.pdf Version April 2010 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: The Geography of Internet Infrastructure: An Evolutionary Simulation Approach Based on Preferential Attachment (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:1006

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