Robustness of Internet under targeted attack: A cascading failure perspective

Abstract

In many networks, there exist some heterogeneous nodes, for example the hosts and the routers in the Internet, and the users and the supply-grid stations in the power grid. In the previous studies, however, few cascading models were constructed in the heterogeneous networks. Considering two types of nodes, we propose a new cascading edge model and investigate the cascading dynamic behaviors in the Internet. Compared with an extending Barabási–Albert (BA) network with two types of nodes, we find that the Internet displays the stronger robust level under two targeted attacks and propose some effective methods to protect these networks. The cascading model in the Internet can be extensively applied to other real-life networks, and may provide a new perspective to study the network safety.