Cascading failure model for improving the robustness of scale-free networks

To control the spread of cascading failure on scale-free networks, we propose a new model with the betweenness centrality and the degrees of the nodes which are combined. The effects of the parameters of the edge weight on cascading dynamics are investigated. Five metrics to evaluate the robustness of the network are given: the threshold parameter ([Formula: see text]), the proportion of collapsed edges ([Formula: see text]), the proportion of collapsed nodes ([Formula: see text]), the number of nodes in the largest connected component ([Formula: see text]) and the number of the connected component ([Formula: see text]). Compared with the degrees of nodes’ model and the betweenness of the nodes’ model, the new model could control the spread of cascading failure more significantly. This work might be helpful for preventing and mitigating cascading failure in real life, especially for small load networks.