Robustness of complex networks with both unidirectional and bidirectional links against cascading failures

Abstract

The robustness of complex networks against cascading failures has been of great interest, while most of the researchers have considered undirected networks. However, to be more realistic, a part of links of many real systems should be described as unidirectional. In this paper, by applying three link direction-determining (DD) strategies, the tolerance of cascading failures is investigated in various networks with both unidirectional and bidirectional links. By extending the utilization of a classical global betweenness method, we propose a new cascading model, taking into account the weights of nodes and the directions of links. Then, the effects of unidirectional links on the network robustness against cascaded attacks are examined under the global load-based distribution mechanism. The simulation results show that the link-directed methods could not always lead to the decrease of the network robustness as indicated in the previous studies. For small-world networks, these methods certainly make the network weaker. However, for scale-free networks, the network robustness can be significantly improved by the link-directed method, especially for the method with non-random DD strategies. These results are independent of the weight parameter of the nodes. Due to the strongly improved robustness and easy realization with low cost on networks, the method for enforcing proper links to the unidirectional ones may be useful for leading to insights into the control of cascading failures in real-world networks, like communication and transportation networks.