Enhancing the network synchronizability

The structural and dynamical properties, particularly the small-world effect and scale-free feature, of complex networks have attracted tremendous interest and attention in recent years. This article offers a brief review of one focal issue concerning the structural and dynamical behaviors of complex network synchronization. In the presentation, the notions of synchronization of dynamical systems on networks, stability of dynamical networks, and relationships between network structure and synchronizability, will be first introduced. Then, various technical methods for enhancing the network synchronizability will be discussed, which are roughly divided into two classes: Structural Modification and Coupling-Pattern Regulation, where the former includes three typical methods-dividing hub nodes, shortening average distances, and deleting overload edges, while the latter mainly is a method of strengthening the hub-nodes' influence on the network. © 2007 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag.