  Complex networks have attracted growing attention in many fields. As a
generalization of fractal analysis, multifractal analysis (MFA) is a useful way
to systematically describe the spatial heterogeneity of both theoretical and
experimental fractal patterns. Some algorithms for MFA of unweighted complex
networks have been proposed in the past a few years, including the sandbox (SB)
algorithm recently employed by our group. In this paper, a modified SB
algorithm (we call it SBw algorithm) is proposed for MFA of weighted
networks.First, we use the SBw algorithm to study the multifractal property of
two families of weighted fractal networks (WFNs): "Sierpinski" WFNs and "Cantor
dust" WFNs. We also discuss how the fractal dimension and generalized fractal
dimensions change with the edge-weights of the WFN. From the comparison between
the theoretical and numerical fractal dimensions of these networks, we can find
that the proposed SBw algorithm is efficient and feasible for MFA of weighted
networks. Then, we apply the SBw algorithm to study multifractal properties of
some real weighted networks ---collaboration networks. It is found that the
multifractality exists in these weighted networks, and is affected by their
edge-weights.
