Abstract :
We are living in an era of networks. Networks, mainly the transportation and communication networks, have played critical roles in history. The world has been transformed our societies and economies on different networks from physical networks to more abstract networks comprising: financial networks, environmental networks, social, and knowledge networks, as well as their combinations. Networks in different areas now interweave into complex networks of networks. The Internet changed the way in which many people work, shop, conduct their financial transactions, and communicate with one another and transformed many other networks, and has affected such networks as supply chain and financial networks, through the introduction of electronic commerce and electronic finance, respectively. Moreover, it has impacted the usage of transportation networks.
Keywords :
network theory (graphs); Internet; communication networks; electronic commerce; electronic finance; environmental networks; financial networks; knowledge networks; socialnetworks; supernetwork; supply chain; systems analysis; transportation networks; Collaboration; Decision making; Electronic commerce; Knowledge engineering; Optimization; Supply chains;