ABSTRACT
The fractal is an important feature of many real complex networks. According to the definition of the Hausdorff dimension, the minimum number of boxes that can be used to cover complex networks is an important factor for revealing the fractal feature of self-similar complex networks. The calculation of the minimum number of boxes is an NP (Non-deterministic Polynomial)-hard problem. In this paper, a heuristic algorithm, named the Max–Min ant colony algorithm, is introduced to approximate the minimum number of boxes. The pheromone-updating rules and heuristic rules are redefined to improve the performance of the algorithm. The experimental results show that, for Escherichia coli networks, the number of boxes was significantly decreased compared to the box-covering greedy algorithm, especially when the box size is small.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.