Accurately modeling the internet topology -: art. no. 066108

Based on measurements of the internet topology data, we found that there are two mechanisms which are necessary for the correct modeling of the internet topology at the autonomous systems (AS) level: the interactive growth of new nodes and new internal links, and a nonlinear preferential attachment, where the preference probability is described by a positive-feedback mechanism. Based on the above mechanisms, we introduce the positive-feedback preference (PFP) model which accurately reproduces many topological properties of the AS-level internet, including degree distribution, rich-club connectivity, the maximum degree, shortest path length, short cycles, disassortative mixing, and betweenness centrality. The PFP model is a phenomenological model which provides an insight into the evolutionary dynamics of real complex networks.