Epidemic spreading in interconnected complex system

Abstract

Complex system is a newly introduced concept that only has been studied for around two decades. As nowadays systems tend to be more correlated than usual. More and more studies are focusing on the interconnected/interdependent networks.

In this project, the dynamics of epidemic spreading in different interconnection modes are going to be observed and studied. Interconnection will be made between two Barabási–Albert (BA) Scale-Free networks with different interconnection modes. The Susceptible–Infected–Removed (SIR) epidemiology model will be adopted in simulating the spreading of disease. Programming simulations are used to demonstrate the dynamics of epidemic spreading to analyze the infection size against time. Two interconnection models are being considered, one-to-one interconnection mode and one-to-multiple interconnection mode.

Comparison between the two different interconnection modes has shown that one-to-multiple interconnection mode will postpone the outbreak time, and even create two distinct outbreak peaks during the spreading procedure.