Topological resilience of complex networks against failure and attack

Complex networks describe a variety of systems in nature and society. The past ten years have seen a dramatic increase in research on these networks. Network science is now an emerging discipline that addresses the defining characteristics of complex networks. This paper presents some of the characteristics of complex networks that affect their performance. Complex networks in this paper are typified as random networks, small-world networks, and scale-free networks. In addition to discussing some of the generic properties of these networks, this paper focuses on a comparison among the networks for their resilience against failure and attack. The small-world (WS) network is found to have the best resilience compared to others because of its highly clustered feature. The results help one gain a better understanding of the field.