Game theoretic approach for discovering vulnerable links in complex networks

Abstract

Complex networks have been an up-and-coming exciting field in the realm of interactions. With their widespread use appearing on the horizon it is ever more vital to be able to measure their vulnerability as a function of their topology. Precisely, discovering vulnerable links, disposed to attacks, can help in hardening these links and by that providing more secure and reliable network structure. This paper addresses the link vulnerability of different topologies of complex networks such as: random networks, geographic random networks, small world networks and scale-free networks. We introduce measure for vulnerability of complex networks, and prove by simulations that network vulnerability heavily depends on the network topology. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.