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Complex networks

The fragility of interdependency

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A study of failures in interconnected networks highlights the vulnerability of tightly coupled infrastructures and shows the need to consider mutually dependent network properties in designing resilient systems.

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Figure 1: Interconnected networks of human mobility in North America.

B. GONÇALVES ET AL., INDIANA UNIV.

Figure 2: Breakdown of isolated and interconnected networks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alessandro Vespignani is in the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (CNetS), School of Informatics and Computing, and the Pervasive Technology Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47406, USA, and in the ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy. alexv@indiana.edu ,

    Alessandro Vespignani

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  1. Alessandro Vespignani
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Vespignani, A. The fragility of interdependency. Nature 464, 984–985 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464984a

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