We study the effect of coupling delay in a regular network with a ring topology and in a more complex network with an all-to-all (global) topology in the presence of impurities (disorder). We find that the coupling delay is capable of inducing phase-coherent chaotic oscillations in both types of networks, thereby enhancing the spatiotemporal complexity even in the presence of $50\%$ of symmetric disorders of both fixed and random types. Furthermore, the coupling delay increases the robustness of the networks up to $70\%$ of disorders, thereby preventing the network from acquiring periodic oscillations to foster disorder-induced spatiotemporal order. We also confirm the enhancement of coherent chaotic oscillations using snapshots of the phases and values of the associated Kuramoto order parameter. We also explain a possible mechanism for the phenomenon of delay-induced coherent chaotic oscillations despite the presence of large disorders and discuss its applications.

• Received 22 June 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.066206