Dynamical properties of transportation on complex networks

We study the dynamical properties of transportation considering the topology structure of networks and congestion effects, based on a proposed simple model. We analyze the behavior of the model for finding out the relationship between the properties of transportation and the structure of network. Analysis and numerical results demonstrate that the transition from free flow to congested regime can be observed for both single link load and network load, but it is discontinuous for single link and continuous for network. We also find that networks with large average degree have small average link betweenness and are more tolerant to congestion, and networks with homogeneous structure can hold more vehicles in stationary state at the subcritical region. Furthermore, by allotting capacity with different mode to links, a manner of enhancing the performance of networks is introduced, which should be helpful in the design of traffic networks. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.