Information entropy of diffusion processes on complex networks

Diffusion processes have been widely investigated to understand some essential features of complex networks, and have attracted much attention from physicists, statisticians and computer scientists. In order to understand the evolution of the diffusion process and design the optimal routing strategy according to the maximal entropic diffusion on networks, we propose the information entropy comprehending the structural characteristics and information propagation on the network. Based on the analysis of the diffusion process, we analyze the coupling impact of the structural factor and information propagating factor on the information entropy, where the analytical results fit well with the numerical ones on scale-free complex networks. The information entropy can better characterize the complex behaviors on networks and provides a new way to deepen the understanding of the diffusion process.