Correlated network of networks enhances robustness against catastrophic failures

Authors

Byungjoon Min, CUNY City CollegeFollow
Muhua Zheng, CUNY City College

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-18-2018

Abstract

Networks in nature rarely function in isolation but instead interact with one another with a form of a network of networks (NoN). A network of networks with interdependency between distinct networks contains instability of abrupt collapse related to the global rule of activation. As a remedy of the collapse instability, here we investigate a model of correlated NoN. We find that the collapse instability can be removed when hubs provide the majority of interconnections and interconnections are convergent between hubs. Thus, our study identifies a stable structure of correlated NoN against catastrophic failures. Our result further suggests a plausible way to enhance network robustness by manipulating connection patterns, along with other methods such as controlling the state of node based on a local rule.

Comments

This article was originally published in PLoS One, available at DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195539.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).