Vulnerability analysis of interdependent network via integer programming approaches

The interdependent network can be applied to model two or more infrastructure systems with mutual reliance. The failure of elements in one system may lead to failure of dependent elements in other systems, and this may happen recursively leading to a cascade of failures. In this paper, integer programming models are proposed to identify the most vulnerable network elements (nodes and edges), whose removal can maximally destroy the interdependent network, with minimum functional components survived after the cascading failure process. Numerical experiments are performed on several interdependent networks consisting of power grid and control communication network, to validate the proposed models and to identify the vulnerable network elements.