Nature Science Reports just published a paper by Agnieszka Czaplicka, Janusz A. Holyst and Peter Sloot about “Noise enhances information transfer in hierarchical networks”.
Dutch Press release is here
Paper in Nature Science Reports here
We study the influence of noise on information transmission in a form of packages shipped between nodes of hierarchical networks. Numerical simulations are performed for artificial tree networks, scale-free Ravasz-Barabasi networks as well for a real network formed by email addresses of former Enron employees. Two types of noise are considered. One is related to packet dynamics and is responsible for a random part of packets paths. The second one originates from random changes in initial network topology. We find that the information transfer can be enhanced by the noise. The system possesses optimal performance when both kinds of noise are tuned to specific values, this corresponds to the Stochastic Resonance phenomenon. There is a non-trivial synergy present for both noisy components. We found also that hierarchical networks built of nodes of various degrees are more efficient in information transfer than trees with a fixed branching factor.