Editing Centrality (section)

===Characterization by network flows===
A network can be considered a description of the paths along which something flows. This allows a characterization based on the type of flow and the type of path encoded by the centrality. A flow can be based on transfers, where each indivisible item goes from one node to another, like a package delivery going from the delivery site to the client's house. A second case is serial duplication, in which an item is replicated so that both the source and the target have it. An example is the propagation of information through gossip, with the information being propagated in a private way and with both the source and the target nodes being informed at the end of the process. The last case is parallel duplication, with the item being duplicated to several links at the same time, like a radio broadcast which provides the same information to many listeners at once.<ref name=Borgatti2005/>

Likewise, the type of path can be constrained to [[Distance (graph theory)|geodesics]] (shortest paths), [[Glossary of graph theory terms#path|paths]]  (no vertex is visited more than once), [[Glossary of graph theory terms#trail|trails]] (vertices can be visited multiple times, no edge is traversed more than once), or [[Glossary of graph theory terms#walk|walks]] (vertices and edges can be visited/traversed multiple times).<ref name=Borgatti2005/>