# Control contribution identifies top driver nodes in complex networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.04663 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.04663/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jun 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Network control by a constrained external agent as a continuous optimization problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10298/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a new measure to quantify the impact of a node i in controlling a directed network. This measure, called `control contribution' Ci, combines the probability for node i to appear in a set of driver nodes and the probability for other nodes to be controlled by i. To calculate Ci, we propose an optimization method based on random samples of minimum sets of drivers. Using real-world and synthetic networks, we find very broad distributions of Ci. Ranking nodes according to their Ci values allows us to identify the top driver nodes that control most of the network. We show that this ranking is superior to rankings based on control capacity or control range. We find that control contribution indeed contains new information that cannot be traced back to degree, control capacity or control range of a node.