Nonlocal effects and counter measures in cascading failures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how cascading failures spread in complex supply networks, highlighting the role of network topology in nonlocal effects and evaluating countermeasures like edge removal.

Contribution

It reveals how small-world network properties suppress nonlocal overloads and analyzes the effectiveness of nonlocal countermeasures in vulnerable networks.

Findings

Small-world networks tend to contain cascades locally.

Nonlocal actions are necessary in low-redundancy networks.

Countermeasures based on edge removal can mitigate cascade propagation.

Abstract

We study the propagation of cascading failures in complex supply networks with a focus on nonlocal effects occurring far away from the initial failure. It is shown that a high clustering and a small average path length of a network generally suppress nonlocal overloads. These properties are typical for many real-world networks, often called small-world networks, such that cascades propagate mostly locally in these networks. Furthermore, we analyze the spatial aspects of countermeasures based on the intentional removal of additional edges. Nonlocal actions are generally required in networks which have a low redundancy and are thus especially vulnerable to cascades.