Cascading failures of interdependent networks with different k-core structures

Abstract

As one of the most common mesoscale structures in real-life networks, k-core hierarchical structure has attracted a lot of attention. Recent research about k-core always focuses on detecting influential nodes determining failure or epidemic propagation. However, few studies have attempted to understand how k-core structural properties can affect dynamic characteristics of network. In this paper, the influences of depth and coupling preferences of k-core on the cascading failures of interdependent scale-free networks are investigated. First, k-core structures of some real-life networks are analyzed, and a scale-free network evolution model with rich and successive k-core layers is proposed. Then, based on a load-based cascading model, the influence of the depth of k-core is investigated with a new evaluation index. In the end, two coupling preferences are analyzed, i.e. random coupling (RC) and assortative coupling (AC). Results show that the lower the depth is, the more robust the interdependent networks will be, and we find AC and RC perform dissimilarly when the capacity varies. Furthermore, all the effects will be affected by the initial load.