Elasticity: topological characterization of robustness in complex networks

  • Authors:
  • A. Sydney;C. Scoglio;P. Schumm;R. E. Kooij

  • Affiliations:
  • Kansas State University;Kansas State University;Kansas State University;Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information and Computing Sytems
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Just as a herd of animals relies on its robust social structure to survive in the wild, similarly robustness is a crucial characteristic for the survival of a complex network under attack. The capacity to measure robustness in complex networks defines a network's survivability in the advent of classical component failures and at the onset of cryptic malicious attacks. To date, robustness metrics are deficient and unfortunately the following dilemmas exist: accurate models necessitate complex analysis while conversely, simple models lack applicability to our definition of robustness. In this paper, we define robustness and present a novel metric, elasticity- a bridge between accuracy and complexity-a link in the chain of network robustness. Additionally, we "test-drive" the performance of elasticity on Internet topologies and online social networks, and articulate results.