Heterogeneous networks on multiple levels

Abstract

At any moment in time, we are driven by and are an integral part of many interconnected, dynamically changing networks. Our species has evolved as part of diverse ecological, biological, social, and other networks over thousands of years. As part of a complex food web, we learned how to find prey and to avoid predators. We have created advanced socio-technical environments in the shape of cities, water and power networks, streets, and airline systems. In 1969, people started to interlink computers leading to the largest and most widely used networked communication infrastructure in existence today: the Internet. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.