An empirical validation of growth models for complex networks

Abstract

This chapter is focused towards the empirical validation of generation of powerlaw networks. Empirical growth data from four different networks (the Flickr and the YouTube online social networks, Wikipedia’s content graph, and the Internet’s AS-level graph) are used to show this growth. This study makes two contributions: First, the gathering of detailed measurements of the growth of four large-scale networks and make the data available to the research community. Second, the thorough investigation of the link creation processes in datasets. The inadequacy of preferential attachment (i.e., “the rich get richer”), a popular growth model, to explain growth has been revealed in this chapter.