Enhancing robustness of interdependent network under recovery based on a two-layer-protection strategy

Area of Science:

• Network science
• Complex systems
• Systems engineering

Background:

• Coupled networks are vulnerable to cascading failures, especially during reconstruction.
• Existing robustness strategies primarily focus on network integrity and single-layer node protection.
• Failures during network reconstruction remain a significant challenge for coupled systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel two-layer protection strategy for enhancing the robustness of coupled networks during reconstruction.
• To investigate the effectiveness of different centrality measures in identifying influential nodes for protection.
• To compare the proposed strategy against existing single-layer methods.

Main Methods:

• A two-layer protection strategy was developed, considering node influence across both layers of a coupled network.
• Five distinct centrality-based strategies were employed to select influential nodes for protection.
• The proposed strategy was evaluated through experiments on three real-world coupled network datasets.

Main Results:

• The two-layer protection strategy significantly enhances the robustness of coupled networks under reconstruction.
• This approach proves more efficient in maintaining network integrity compared to single-layer protection methods.
• Node selection based on centrality measures effectively identifies critical nodes for protection within the two-layer framework.

Conclusions:

• The proposed two-layer protection strategy offers a superior method for bolstering the resilience of coupled networks against failures during reconstruction.
• This research highlights the importance of considering multi-layer interactions for effective network protection.
• The findings provide valuable insights for designing more robust and reliable complex network systems.