Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2023, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 543-573.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2023.000080

• COMPLEX SYSTEMS THEORY AND PRACTICE •    

Complex systems and network science: a survey

Kewei YANG(), Jichao LI(), Maidi LIU(), Tianyang LEI, Xueming XU(), Hongqian WU(), Jiaping CAO(), Gaoxin QI()   

  1. 1 College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
  • Received:2022-11-23 Online:2023-06-15 Published:2023-06-30
  • Contact: Kewei YANG E-mail:kayyang27@nudt.edu.cn;ljcnudt@hotmail.com;lmdnudt@hotmail.com;xueming_x2m@163.com;wuhongqian19@nudt.edu.cn;jiapingcao@126.com;qi198@foxmail.com
  • About author:
    YANG Kewei was born in 1977. He is a professor with National University of Defense Technology. He serves as the director of Systems Engineering Society of China, and the vice president of Systems Engineering and Management Society of Hunan Province. He has been the head of Technology Innovation Group of Hunan Province named Big Data and System of Systems Engineering since 2020. His research interests focus on system-of-systems engineering, complex systems theory and complex equipment test and evaluation. E-mail: kayyang27@nudt.edu.cn

    LI Jichao was born in 1990. He received his B.E. degree in management science, M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in management science and engineering from National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China, in 2013, 2015, and 2019, respectively. He is currently an associate professor of management science and engineering at National University of Defense Techno-logy. In 2017−2019, he was a visiting predoctoral fellow at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA. His research interests focus on studying complex systems with a combination of theoretical tool and data analysis, including mathematical modeling of heterogeneous information networks, applying network methodologies to analyze the development of complex system-of-systems, and data-driven studying of the collective behavior of humans. E-mail: ljcnudt@hotmail.com

    LIU Maidi was born in 1995. He received his B.E. degree in management engineering from National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China, in 2017. He is currently a Ph.D. student in management science and engineering at the College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology. His research interests focus on complex systems, complex network, and data mining. E-mail: lmdnudt@hotmail.com

    LEI Tianyang was born in 1994. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Taiyuan University of Technology and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China. His research interests include Internet of Things, graph neural network, data mining, and complex networks. E-mail: leitianyang20@163.com

    XU Xueming was born in 1998. She received her B.E. degree in management science and engineering from Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, China, in 2020. She is a master’s student in management science and engineering from National University of Defense Technology. Her research interests include network disintegration and cascading effects. E-mail: xueming_x2m@163.com

    WU Hongqian was born in 1997. She received her M.E. degree in marine science from National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China, in 2021. She is a Ph.D. student in management science and engineering from National University of Defense Technology. Her research interests include higher-order systems and networks. E-mail: wuhongqian19@nudt.edu.cn

    CAO Jiaping was born in 1999. She received her B.E. degree in industrial engineering from Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, in 2021. She is an M.E. student in management science and engineering with National University of Defense Technology. Her research interests include complex system and complex network, and heterogeneous information network link prediction. E-mail: jiapingcao@126.com

    QI Gaoxin was born in 1998. He received his B.S. degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, in 2020. He is a postgraduate student at National University of Defense Technology. His research interest focuses on evolutionary game theory of complex networks. E-mail: qi198@foxmail.com
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    Co-first author

  • Supported by:
    The work was supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (72231011), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72071206; 72001209; 71971213), and the Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth Scholars of Hunan Province (2022JJ20047).

Abstract:

Complex systems widely exist in nature and human society. There are complex interactions between system elements in a complex system, and systems show complex features at the macro level, such as emergence, self-organization, uncertainty, and dynamics. These complex features make it difficult to understand the internal operation mechanism of complex systems. Networked modeling of complex systems is a favorable means of understanding complex systems. It not only represents complex interactions but also reflects essential attributes of complex systems. This paper summarizes the research progress of complex systems modeling and analysis from the perspective of network science, including networked modeling, vital node analysis, network invulnerability analysis, network disintegration analysis, resilience analysis, complex network link prediction, and the attacker-defender game in complex networks. In addition, this paper presents some points of view on the trend and focus of future research on network analysis of complex systems.

Key words: complex system, complex network, invulnerability and resilience, network disintegration, link prediction, attacker-defender game theory