Robustness of deterministic hierarchical networks against cascading failures

Hierarchical structure is one of the most ubiquitous structures in various networked complex systems. Cascading failures are common phenomenon in real-life systems and can occur in many infrastructure networks, including the hierarchical complex networks. In this paper, we propose a deterministic hierarchical network model which simultaneously possesses the small-world and scale-free properties. We furthermore investigate the robustness against cascading failures of the proposed model. By simulation analysis, we find some interesting and counterintuitive results which may be useful in furthering studies of control of and defense against cascading failures in many real hierarchical complex networks.