Self-organized transport in noisy dynamic networks

Abstract: We present a numerical study of multi-commodity transport in a noisy, nonlinear network. The nonlinearity determines the dynamics of the edge capacities, which can be amplified or suppressed depending on the local current flowing across an edge. We consider network self-organization for three different nonlinear functions: For all three we identify parameter regimes where noise leads to self-organization into more robust topologies, that are not found by the sole noiseless dynamics. Moreover, the interplay between noise and specific functional behavior of the nonlinearity gives rise to different features, such as (i) continuous or discontinuous responses to the demand strength and (ii) either single or multi-stable solutions. Our study shows the crucial role of the activation function on noise-assisted phenomena.