Towards structural controllability of local-world networks

• Structural controllability of a class of local-world networks is investigated.
• For sparse local-world networks, compared to network size, local-world size can bring stronger influence on controllability.
• For dense networks, controllability is greatly affected by network size and the effect of local-world size can be neglected.
• Structural controllability against targeted node attacks is discussed.

Controlling complex networks is of vital importance in science and engineering. Meanwhile, local-world effect is an important ingredient which should be taken into consideration in the complete description of real-world complex systems. In this letter, structural controllability of a class of local-world networks is investigated. Through extensive numerical simulations, firstly, effects of local world size M and network size N on structural controllability are examined. For local-world networks with sparse topological configuration, compared to network size, local-world size can induce stronger influence on controllability, however, for dense networks, controllability is greatly affected by network size and local-world effect can be neglected. Secondly, relationships between controllability and topological properties are analyzed. Lastly, the robustness of local-world networks under targeted attacks regarding structural controllability is discussed. These results can help to deepen the understanding of structural complexity and connectivity patterns of complex systems.