Robustness of controlling edge dynamics in complex networks against node failure

The robustness of controlling complex networks is significant in network science. In this paper, we focus on evaluating and analyzing the robustness of controlling edge dynamics in complex networks against node failure. Using three categories of all nodes to quantify the robustness, we find that the percentages of the three types of nodes are mainly related to the degree distribution of networks. The simulation results of model networks and analytic calculations show that the sparse inhomogeneous networks, which emerge in many real complex networks, have strong control robustness from the point of the number of ordinary nodes, but the strong positive correlation between in and out degrees reduces the control robustness. Evaluation of real-world networks indicates that most of them have few or no critical nodes, that is, they do not need to increase driver nodes to maintain control for most of node failures. Then an adding circuit-link strategy is proposed to optimize the robustness of edge controllability.