Title
Inverse targeting -- an effective immunization strategy
Abstract
We propose a new method to immunize populations or computer networks against epidemics which is more efficient than any continuous immunization method considered before. The novelty of our method resides in the way of determining the immunization targets. First we identify those individuals or computers that contribute the least to the disease spreading measured through their contribution to the size of the largest connected cluster in the social or a computer network. The immunization process follows the list of identified individuals or computers in inverse order, immunizing first those which are most relevant for the epidemic spreading. We have applied our immunization strategy to several model networks and two real networks, the Internet and the collaboration network of high-energy physicists. We find that our new immunization strategy is in the case of model networks up to 14%, and for real networks up to 33% more efficient than immunizing dynamically the most connected nodes in a network. Our strategy is also numerically efficient and can therefore be applied to large systems. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2012
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1209/0295-5075/98/46002
EPL
Keywords
DocType
Volume
computer network
Journal
98
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
4
0295-5075
2
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.37
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Christian M. Schneider11428.29
Tamara Mihaljev2110.93
Hans J. Herrmann318617.58