Catastrophic Cascade of Failures in Interdependent Networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews how interdependent networks are more vulnerable to cascading failures, highlighting the significant differences from single networks and the impact of coupling on systemic robustness.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the properties and vulnerabilities of interdependent networks, emphasizing the increased risk of cascading failures due to coupling.

Findings

Coupling increases network vulnerability to failures.

Interdependent networks exhibit different failure dynamics than single networks.

Failures can propagate across systems, amplifying risks.

Abstract

Modern network-like systems are usually coupled in such a way that failures in one network can affect the entire system. In infrastructures, biology, sociology, and economy, systems are interconnected and events taking place in one system can propagate to any other coupled system. Recent studies on such coupled systems show that the coupling increases their vulnerability to random failure. Properties for interdependent networks differ significantly from those of single-network systems. In this article, these results are reviewed and the main properties discussed.