Dissemination of information in complex networks with congestion

We address the problem of message transfer in complex networks with congestion. We propose a new strategy aimed at improving routing efficiency. Such a strategy, contrary to the shortest available path length from a given source to its destination (perhaps the most widely analyzed routing strategy), takes into account the congestion of nodes and can be deployed, with a minimal overhead, on top of it. Our results show that, by distributing more homogeneously the congestion of nodes, it significantly reduces the average network load as well as the collapse point. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.