The robustness of interdependent networks under the interplay between cascading failures and virus propagation

TL;DR

This paper explores how cascading failures and virus spread interact in interdependent networks, revealing a critical virus transmissibility threshold and proposing control measures to enhance network robustness.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled framework for cascading failures and virus propagation in interdependent networks, highlighting the feedback loop and robustness conditions.

Findings

Existence of a critical virus transmissibility threshold for network collapse

Denser virus-supporting networks increase vulnerability

Control measures based on identification improve robustness

Abstract

Cascading failures and epidemic dynamics, as two successful application realms of network science, are usually investigated separately. How do they affect each other is still one open, interesting problem. In this letter, we couple both processes and put them into the framework of interdependent networks, where each network only supports one dynamical process. Of particular interest, they spontaneously form a feedback loop: virus propagation triggers cascading failures of systems while cascading failures suppress virus propagation. Especially, there exists crucial threshold of virus transmissibility, above which the interdependent networks collapse completely. In addition, the interdependent networks will be more vulnerable if the network supporting virus propagation has denser connections; otherwise the interdependent systems are robust against the change of connections in other layer(s). This discovery differs from previous framework of cascading failure in interdependent networks, where better robustness usually needs denser connections. Finally, to protect interdependent networks we also propose the control measures based on the identification capability. The larger this capability, more robustness the interdependent networks will be.