Epidemic spreading and immunization on assortative degree mixing networks

Abstract

Epidemic spreading and immunization are influenced by network structure measured via metrics. Degree mixing is a common property of network reflecting links in regards of node degree. In this paper we study epidemics spreading and immunization on degree mixing using empirical network data, analytic models, and numerical simulation. We demonstrate that assortative (or disassortative) degree mixing indeed influence spreading and effect of immunization. In the point of epidemic spreading, assortativity decreases speed and stable infected ratio, resulting in a better result, but decrease epidemic threshold. In the point of immunization, strategy that targets hub nodes has better effect on disassortative network.