Abstract
This chapter introduces a recently proposed Internet model, namely the positive-feedback preference (PFP) model (Zhou & Mondragón, 2004a). The model is a precise and complete Internet topology generator, which accurately reproduces the largest set of important characteristics of the Internet topology at the autonomous systems (AS) level.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Rich-Club Phenomenon: A topology property of some complex networks, which describes the fact that well-connected nodes, “rich” nodes, are tightly interconnected with other rich nodes, forming a core group or club.
Topology: A connectivity graph representing a real network, upon which the network’s physical and engineering properties are based.
Small-World Network: A network in which, on average, any two nodes are separated by a very small number of connections.
Degree: Is defined, in the graph theory, as the number of connections that a node has, or the number of direct neighbors of the node.
Betweenness Centrality: A measure of a node (or a link) within a graph. Nodes that occur on many of the shortest paths between other nodes have higher betweenness than those that do not.
Positive-Feedback Preference Model: A precise and complete Internet topology generator proposed by Zhou and Mondragón in 2004.
Short Cycles: Include triangles and quadrangles, which encode the redundancy information in a network, because the multiplicity of paths between any two nodes increases with the density of short cycles.
CAIDA: Stands for the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, which is based at the San Diego Supercomputer Centre, USA. CAIDA is a world-leading organization for Internet measurement and research.
Autonomous System: A collection of IP networks and routers under the control of one entity (or sometimes more) that presents a common routing policy to the Internet.
Scale-Free Network: A network characterized by a power-law distribution of node degree, where the power-law exponent is invariant to the network size (scale).
BGP: Stands for Border Gateway Protocol, which is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It works by maintaining a table of IP networks or “prefixes” which designate network reachability between autonomous systems (AS).