Topological theory of resilience and failure spreading in flow networks

TL;DR

This paper develops a topological framework using spanning trees to analyze and prevent failure spreading in flow networks like power grids, offering strategies that improve resilience without reducing flow capacity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel topological approach based on the Matrix Tree Theorem to identify network structures that prevent failure spreading in flow networks.

Findings

Certain topological features suppress failure spreading.

Strategies based on topology can enhance resilience without reducing flow capacity.

The approach explains observed suppression of failure spreading in real networks.

Abstract

Link failures in supply networks can have catastrophic consequences that can lead to a complete collapse of the network. Strategies to prevent failure spreading are thus heavily sought after. Here, we make use of a spanning tree formulation of link failures in linear flow networks to analyse topological structures that prevent failures spreading. In particular, we exploit a result obtained for resistor networks based on the \textit{Matrix tree theorem} to analyse failure spreading after link failures in power grids. Using a spanning tree formulation of link failures, we analyse three strategies based on the network topology that allow to reduce the impact of single link failures. All our strategies do not reduce the grid's ability to transport flow or do in fact improve it - in contrast to traditional containment strategies based on lowering network connectivity. Our results also explain why certain connectivity features completely suppress any failure spreading as reported in recent publications.