Minimum-cost control of complex networks. (24th December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Guoqi; Hu, Wuhua; Xiao, Gaoxi; Deng, Lei; Tang, Pei; Pei, Jing; Shi, Luping
• Is Part Of: New journal of physics. Volume 18:Number 1(2016:Jan.)
• Publication Date: 2015-12-24
• Subjects: complex networks -- minimum energy cost -- projected gradient method; Physics -- Periodicals; Physics; Periodicals; 530.05
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/18/1/013012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-2630

Abstract

Abstract: Finding the solution for driving a complex network at the minimum energy cost with a given number of controllers, known as the minimum-cost control problem, is critically important but remains largely open. We propose a projected gradient method to tackle this problem, which works efficiently in both synthetic and real-life networks. The study is then extended to the case where each controller can only be connected to a single network node to have the lowest connection complexity. We obtain the interesting insight that such connections basically avoid high-degree nodes of the network, which is in resonance with recent observations on controllability of complex networks. Our results provide the first technical path to enabling minimum-cost control of complex networks, and contribute new insights to locating the key nodes from a minimum-cost control perspective.