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Cambridge Networks Network

 

Imperial College Complexity & Networks seminar

Speaker: Prof Huijuan Wang, Network Architecture and Services Group , Delft University of Technology

Title: Effect of the interconnected network structure on the epidemic threshold

Abstract: Modern network systems are becoming increasingly interconnected. Diseases and computer virus, for example, may spread across multiple species or communities. This motivated the recent studies on epidemic spreading in interconnected networks. New phenomena have been revealed. For example, in susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model an endemic state may appear in the coupled networks even when an epidemic is unable to propagate in each network separately. However, the question of how the interconnected network structure affects the epidemic spreading has not been addressed. In this talk, we determine firstly a critical SIS epidemic threshold in two generic interconnected networks. Furthermore, we analytically express the perturbation approximation, lower and upper bounds of this epidemic threshold as a function of the properties of each component network and the interconnections in between. These approximation and bounds for the epidemic threshold are verified using numerical simulations and, thus, unveil how features of the two component networks and the interconnections affect the epidemic threshold, which provides essential insights essential insights into ways of designing interconnected networks to be robust against epidemics.
Date: 
Tuesday, 4 March, 2014 - 12:00 to 13:00
Contact name: 
Prof. Kim Christensen
Contact phone: 
+44 (0)20 7594 7574
Event location: 
Gabor Seminar Room 611, Electrical & Electronic Engineering Building, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus