Method for measuring node importance in complex networks based on local characteristics

Identifying critical nodes in complex networks has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, how to design an algorithm that has low computational complexity but can accurately identify important network nodes is still a challenge. Considering the role of structural holes in shaping communication channels, this paper presents an effective method based on local characteristics to identify critical nodes that play important roles in maintaining network connectivity. Our method considers the connections of a node as well as the connectivity of the neighborhood of the node. Through numerical simulations on various real-world networks, we have demonstrated that the proposed approach outperforms some other well-known heuristic algorithms in identifying vital nodes and leads to faster network collapse in target destruction.