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| Error and attack tolerance of complex networks |
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| Author(s): Albert R, Jeong H, Barabasi AL |
| Source: NATURE Volume: 406 Issue: 6794 Pages: 378-382 Published: JUL 27 2000 |
| Times Cited: 1,336 References: 24 |
| Abstract: Many complex systems display a surprising degree of tolerance against errors. For example, relatively simple organisms grow, persist and reproduce despite drastic pharmaceutical or environmental interventions, an error tolerance attributed to the robustness of the underlying metabolic network(1). Complex communication networks(2) display a surprising degree of robustness: although key components regularly malfunction, local failures rarely lead to the loss of the global information-carrying ability of the network. The stability of these and other complex systems is often attributed to the redundant wiring of the functional web defined by the systems' components. Here we demonstrate that error tolerance is not shared by all redundant systems: it is displayed only by a class of inhomogeneously wired networks, called scale-free networks, which include the World-Wide Web(3-5), the Internet(6), social networks(7) and cells(8). We find that such networks display an unexpected degree of robustness, the ability of their nodes to communicate being unaffected even by unrealistically high failure rates. However, error tolerance comes at a high price in that these networks are extremely vulnerable to attacks (that is, to the selection and removal of a few nodes that play a vital role in maintaining the network's connectivity). Such error tolerance and attack vulnerability are generic properties of communication networks. |
| Document Type: Article |
| Language: English |
| Reprint Address: Barabasi, AL (reprint author), Univ Notre Dame, Dept Phys, 225 Nieuwland Sci Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA |
Addresses:
1. Univ Notre Dame, Dept Phys, Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA |
| Publisher: MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD, PORTERS SOUTH, 4 CRINAN ST, LONDON N1 9XW, ENGLAND |
| Subject Category: Multidisciplinary Sciences |
| IDS Number: 337WC |
| ISSN: 0028-0836 |
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