Robustness of scale-free networks to cascading failures induced by fluctuating loads.
Taking into account the fact that overload failures in real-world functional networks are usually caused by extreme values of temporally fluctuating loads that exceed the allowable range, we study the robustness of scale-free networks against cascading overload failures induced by fluctuating loads. In our model, loads are described by random walkers moving on a network and a node fails when the number of walkers on the node is beyond the node capacity. Our results obtained by using the generating function method show that scale-free networks are more robust against cascading overload failures than Erdős-Rényi random graphs with homogeneous degree distributions. This conclusion is contrary to that predicted by previous works, which neglect the effect of fluctuations of loads.
Department of Applied Physics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
Shogo
S
Mizutaka
Department of Applied Physics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
Kousuke
K
Yakubo