Extended Clustering Coefficients of Small-World Networks

The clustering coefficient C of a network, which is a measure of direct connectivity between neighbors of the various nodes, ranges from 0 (for no connectivity) to 1 (for full connectivity). We define extended clustering coefficients C(h) of a small-world network based on nodes that are at distance h from a source node, thus generalizing distance-1 neighborhoods employed in computing the ordinary clustering coefficient C = C(1). Based on known results about the distance distribution Pδ(h) in a network, that is, the probability that a randomly chosen pair of vertices have distance h, we derive and experimentally validate the law Pδ(h)C(h) ≤ clogN/N , where c is a small constant that seldom exceeds 1. This result is significant because it shows that the product Pδ(h)C(h) is upper-bounded by a value that is considerably smaller than the product of maximum values for Pδ(h) and C(h).