Communication in multiplex transportation networks

Abstract Complex networks are made up of vertices and edges. The edges, which may be directed or undirected, are equipped with positive weights. Modeling complex systems that consist of different types of objects leads to multilayer networks, in which vertices in distinct layers represent different kinds of objects. Multiplex networks are special vertex-aligned multilayer networks, in which vertices in distinct layers are identified with each other and inter-layer edges connect each vertex with its copy in other layers and have a fixed weight $$\gamma &gt;0$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>γ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&gt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> associated with the ease of communication between layers. This paper discusses two different approaches to analyze communication in a multiplex. One approach focuses on the multiplex global efficiency by using the multiplex path length matrix, the other approach considers the multiplex total communicability. The sensitivity of both the multiplex global efficiency and the multiplex total communicability to structural perturbations in the network is investigated to help to identify intra-layer edges that should be strengthened to enhance communicability.