Degree-correlation, omniscience, and randomized immunization protocols in finite networks
Many naturally occurring networks have a power-law degree distribution as well as a non-zero degree correlation. Despite this, most studies analyzing the efficiency of immunization strategies in networks have concentrated only on power-law degree distribution and ignored degree correlation. This study looks specifically at the effect degree-correlation has on the efficiency of several immunization strategies in scale-free networks. Generally, we found that positive degree correlation raises the number of immunized individuals needed to stop the spread of the infection. Importantly, we found that in networks with positive degree correlation, immunization strategies that utilize knowledge of initial popularity actually perform worse on average than random immunization strategies.