Navigability of complex networks

Routing information through networks is a universal phenomenon in both natural and man-made complex systems. When each node has full knowledge of the global network connectivity, finding short communication paths is merely a matter of distributed computation. However, in many real networks, nodes communicate efficiently even without such global intelligence. Here, we show that the peculiar structural characteristics of many complex networks support efficient communication without global knowledge. We also describe a general mechanism that explains this connection between network structure and function. This mechanism relies on the presence of a metric space hidden behind an observable network. Our findings suggest that real networks in nature have underlying metric spaces that remain undiscovered. Their discovery should have practical applications in a wide range of areas where networks are used to model complex systems.