Cascading failures of loads in interconnected networks under intentional attack

Abstract

Cascading failures of loads in isolated networks under random failures or intentional attacks have been studied in the past decade. The corresponding results for interconnected networks remain missing. In this paper we extend the cascading failure model used in isolated networks to the case of interconnected networks, and study cascades of failures in a data-packet transport scenario. We find that for sparse coupling, enhancing the coupling probability can make interconnected networks more robust against intentional attacks, but keeping increasing the coupling probability has the opposite effect for dense coupling. Additionally, the optimal coupling probability is largely affected by the coupling preference. Finally, assortative coupling is more helpful to resist the cascades compared to disassortative or random coupling. These results can be useful for the design and optimization of interconnected networks such as communication networks, power grids and transportation systems.