Approach to network failure due to intrinsic fluctuations

Abstract

We investigate the asymptotic failure of the network arising solely from intrinsic fluctuations in the flux passing through its nodes. By modeling the flux as random walkers and the node failure induced by large fluctuations as extreme events, it is shown that three distinct nodal failure regimes can be identified before a complete network failure takes place. Further, the approach to network failure through these three regimes is shown to be qualitatively similar for square lattice, all-to-all, scale-free, and Erdos-Renyi networks. We obtain approximate analytical description of the approach to failure for an all-to-all network. This network failure scenario is also demonstrated on a real flight transportation network.