Cascading failures of interdependent modular scale-free networks with different coupling preferences

Abstract

As one of the most important mesoscopic properties of networks, the community structure plays an important role in cascading failures on isolated networks. However, the study for understanding the influences of the community structure on the cascading failures on interdependent scale-free networks remains missing. In this paper, we investigate cascading failures on interdependent modular scale-free networks under inner attacks and hub attacks from the global and local perspective. We mainly analyse the inter-community connections and coupling preferences, i.e. random coupling in communities (RCIC), assortative coupling in communities (ACIC) and assortative coupling with communities (ACWC). We find that increasing inter-community connections can enhance the robustness of interdependent modular scale-free networks for both inner attacks and hub attacks. Furthermore, we also find that the ACIC is more beneficial to resisting cascading failures compared with RCIC or ACWC. For ACIC, the cascading failures propagate mainly in a local community where the initial failure occurs. It is meaningful to control the cascading failures on interdependent modular scale-free networks by constructing ACIC.