Graph Algorithms for Preventing Cascading Failures in Networks

Abstract

Cascading failures in critical networked infrastructures that result even from a single source of failure often lead to rapidly widespread outages as witnessed in the 2013 Northeast blackout in northern America. This paper examines the problem of minimizing the outage when a cascading failure from a single source occurs. An optimization problem is formulated where a limited number of protection nodes, when placed strategically in the network to mitigate systemic risk, can minimize the spread of cascading failure. Computationally fast distributed message-passing algorithms are developed to solve this problem. Global convergence and the optimality of the algorithm are proved using graph theoretic analysis. In particular, we illustrate how the poset-constrained graph algorithms can be designed to address the trade-off between complexity and optimality.