Structural analysis of behavioral networks from the Internet

In spite of the Internet’s phenomenal growth and social impact, many aspects of the collective communication behavior of its users are largely unknown. Understanding the structure and dynamics of the behavioral networks that connect users with each other and with services across the Internet is key to modeling the network and designing future applications. We present a characterization of the properties of the behavioral networks generated by several million users of the Abilene (Internet2) network. Structural features of these networks offer new insights into scaling properties of network activity and ways of distinguishing particular patterns of traffic. For example, we find that the structure of the behavioral network associated with Web activity is characterized by such extreme heterogeneity as to challenge any simple attempt to model Web server traffic. PACS numbers: 89.20.Hh, 89.75.-k Submitted to: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical Structural analysis of behavioral networks from the Internet 2