What Do Network Motifs Tell Us About Robustness and Reliability of Complex Networks?

• Activity Number: 619 - Topics in Defense and National Security
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 1, 2019 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Defense and National Security
• Author(s): Asim Dey* and Yulia Gel and H. Vincent Poor
• Companies: University of Texas at Dallas and University of Texas at Dallas and Princeton University
• Keywords: Complex networks; network robustness; multivariate reliability; network motifs ; data depth

Abstract

Network motifs are often called the building blocks of networks. Analysis of motifs has been found to be an indispensable tool for understanding local network structure, in contrast to measures based on node degree distribution and its functions that primarily address a global network topology. As a result, networks that are similar in terms of global topological properties may differ noticeably at a local level. This phenomenon of the impact of local structure has been recently documented in network fragility analysis and classification. At the same time, most studies of networks still tend to focus on global topological measures often failing to unveil hidden mechanisms behind vulnerability of real networks and their dynamic response to malfunctions. In this paper, a study of motif-based analysis of network robustness and reliability under various types of intentional attacks is presented, with the goal of shedding light on local dynamics and vulnerability of networks. These methods are demonstrated on electricity transmission networks of four European countries and the results are compared with commonly used robustness and reliability measures.