Packet Transport on Complex Networks With and Without Priority-Based Protocol

We study packet transport on scale-free networks with N nodes. At each time step, pN packets are created in the system and sent to randomly selected targets. We first review previous results on the jamming transition occurring at the critical point pc and models to enhance the transport efficiency. Next, we introduce a priority-based protocol and study the packet transport based on it. We consider two cases: (i) A fraction f of generated packets are tagged as priority-assigned; (ii) the packets are all of the same type. For case (i), packets with priority are sent first, compared with those without priority. We find that the jamming transition point is extended for the packets with priority; however, it is reduced for those without priority.