A centrality measure for communication ability in weighted network

This paper proposes a new node centrality measurement in a weighted network, the communication centrality, which is inspired by Hirsch’s h-index. We investigated the properties of the communication centrality, and proved that the distribution of the communication centrality has the power-law upper tail in weighted scale-free networks. Relevant measures for node and network are discussed as extensions. A case study of a scientific collaboration network indicates that the communication centrality is different from other common centrality measures and other h-type indexes. Communication centrality displays moderate correlation with other indexes, and contains a well-balanced mix of other centrality measures and cannot be replaced by any of them.