Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters

Communication networks are vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or floods, as well as to physical attacks, such as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Such real-world events happen in specific geographical locations and disrupt specific parts of the network. Therefore, the geograp...

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Main Authors: Zussman, Gil, Cohen, Reuven, Neumayer, Sebastian J., Modiano, Eytan H
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Format: Article
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115240
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8238-8130
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author Zussman, Gil
Cohen, Reuven
Neumayer, Sebastian J.
Modiano, Eytan H
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Zussman, Gil
Cohen, Reuven
Neumayer, Sebastian J.
Modiano, Eytan H
author_sort Zussman, Gil
collection MIT
description Communication networks are vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or floods, as well as to physical attacks, such as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Such real-world events happen in specific geographical locations and disrupt specific parts of the network. Therefore, the geographical layout of the network determines the impact of such events on the network's connectivity. In this paper, we focus on assessing the vulnerability of (geographical) networks to such disasters. In particular, we aim to identify the most vulnerable parts of the network. That is, the locations of disasters that would have the maximum disruptive effect on the network in terms of capacity and connectivity. We consider graph models in which nodes and links are geographically located on a plane. First, we consider a simplistic bipartite graph model and present a polynomial-time algorithm for finding a worst-case vertical line segment cut. We then generalize the network model to graphs with nodes at arbitrary locations. We model the disaster event as a line segment or a disk and develop polynomial-time algorithms that find a worst-case line segment cut and a worst-case circular cut. Finally, we obtain numerical results for a specific backbone network, thereby demonstrating the applicability of our algorithms to real-world networks. Our novel approach provides a promising new direction for network design to avert geographical disasters or attacks.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1152402022-10-01T15:20:13Z Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters Zussman, Gil Cohen, Reuven Neumayer, Sebastian J. Modiano, Eytan H Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Neumayer, Sebastian J. Modiano, Eytan H Communication networks are vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or floods, as well as to physical attacks, such as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Such real-world events happen in specific geographical locations and disrupt specific parts of the network. Therefore, the geographical layout of the network determines the impact of such events on the network's connectivity. In this paper, we focus on assessing the vulnerability of (geographical) networks to such disasters. In particular, we aim to identify the most vulnerable parts of the network. That is, the locations of disasters that would have the maximum disruptive effect on the network in terms of capacity and connectivity. We consider graph models in which nodes and links are geographically located on a plane. First, we consider a simplistic bipartite graph model and present a polynomial-time algorithm for finding a worst-case vertical line segment cut. We then generalize the network model to graphs with nodes at arbitrary locations. We model the disaster event as a line segment or a disk and develop polynomial-time algorithms that find a worst-case line segment cut and a worst-case circular cut. Finally, we obtain numerical results for a specific backbone network, thereby demonstrating the applicability of our algorithms to real-world networks. Our novel approach provides a promising new direction for network design to avert geographical disasters or attacks. United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Grant HDTRA1-07-1-0004) United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Grant HDTRA09-1-005) United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Grant HDTRA1-09-1-0057) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS-1017800) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS0830961) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS-1018379) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS-1054856) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS-0626781) American Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant EEC-0812072) 2018-05-07T14:36:31Z 2018-05-07T14:36:31Z 2011-12 2018-04-06T13:06:31Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1063-6692 1558-2566 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115240 Neumayer, Sebastian, et al. “Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters.” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 19, no. 6, Dec. 2011, pp. 1610–23. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8238-8130 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2011.2128879 IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) MIT Web Domain
spellingShingle Zussman, Gil
Cohen, Reuven
Neumayer, Sebastian J.
Modiano, Eytan H
Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title_full Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title_fullStr Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title_short Assessing the Vulnerability of the Fiber Infrastructure to Disasters
title_sort assessing the vulnerability of the fiber infrastructure to disasters
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115240
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8238-8130
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