Synchronizability of small-world networks generated from ring networks with equal-distance edge additions

This paper investigates the impact of edge-adding number m and edge-adding distance d on both synchronizability and average path length of NW small-world networks generated from ring networks via random edge-adding. It is found that the synchronizability of the network as a function of the distance d is fluctuant and there exist some d that have almost no impact on the synchronizability and may only scarcely shorten the average path length of the network. Numerical simulations on a network of Lorenz oscillators confirm the above results. This phenomenon shows that the contributions of randomly added edges to both the synchronizability and the average path length are not uniform nor monotone in building an NW small-world network with equal-distance edge additions, implying that only if appropriately adding edges when building up the NW small-word network can help enhance the synchronizability and/or reduce the average path length of the resultant network. Finally, it is shown that this NW small-world network has worse synchronizability and longer average path length, when compared with the conventional NW small-world network, with random-distance edge additions. This may be due to the fact that with equal-distance edge additions, there is only one shortcut distance for better information exchange among nodes and for shortening the average path length, while with random-distance edge additions, there exist many different distances for doing so. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.