Robustness of scale-free networks to cascading failures induced by fluctuating loads

摘要

Taking into account the fact that overload failures in real-world functionalnetworks are usually caused by extreme values of temporally fluctuating loadsthat exceed the allowable range, we study the robustness of scale-free networksagainst cascading overload failures induced by fluctuating loads. In our model,loads are described by random walkers moving on a network and a node fails whenthe number of walkers on the node is beyond the node capacity. Our resultsobtained by using the generating function method shows that scale-free networksare more robust against cascading overload failures than Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyirandom graphs with homogeneous degree distributions. This conclusion iscontrary to that predicted by previous works which neglect the effect offluctuations of loads.