Model for cascading failures with adaptive defense in complex networks

This paper investigates cascading failures in networks by considering interplay between the flow dynamic and the network topology, where the fluxes exchanged between a pair of nodes can be adaptively adjusted depending on the changes of the shortest path lengths between them. The simulations on both an artificially created scale-free network and the real network structure of the power grid reveal that the adaptive adjustment of the fluxes can drastically enhance the robustness of complex networks against cascading failures. Particularly, there exists an optimal region where the propagation of the cascade is significantly suppressed and the fluxes supported by the network are maximal. With this understanding, a costless strategy of defense for preventing cascade breakdown is proposed. It is shown to be more effective for suppressing the propagation of the cascade than the recent proposed strategy of defense based on the intentional removal of nodes.