Modeling and analyzing cascading failures for Internet of Things

• Published in: Information sciences 2021-02, Vol.545, p.753-770
• Main Authors: Fu, Xiuwen, Yang, Yongsheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cascading failures; Cascading model; Internet of Things; Layout scheme; Network survivability
• ISSN: 0020-0255; 1872-6291
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ins.2020.09.054

Network survivability is one of the key challenges that the Internet of Things (IoTs) has to deal with, and cascading failures are one of the main bottlenecks affecting the network survivability of the IoTs. In this work, we fully considered the real characteristics of IoTs systems (i.e., data aggregation and link heterogeneity), and proposed a realistic cascading model based on the layered architecture of the IoTs. In this model, the cascading process of the IoTs is driven by the overload events of relay nodes, base stations and communication links. To help the IoTs improve network survivability, a load-oriented layout scheme for base stations is presented. Through extensive simulations, the soundness of the proposed cascading model and the effectiveness of the proposed layout scheme have been verified, and some meaningful findings are obtained: there is a fully tolerance parameter space for the capacity expansion of network components, and when the expansion coefficients are in this space, the removal of a single network component will not trigger cascading failures; compared with removing other types of network components individually, removing base stations is more likely to trigger cascading failures; in addition to capacity expansion, deploying more base stations can also significantly improve network survivability.