Model for cascading failures in congested Internet

Cascading failures often occur in congested networks such as the Internet. A cascading failure can be described as a three-phase process: generation, diffusion, and dissipation of the congestion. In this account, we present a function that represents the extent of congestion on a given node. This approach is different from existing functions based on betweenness centrality. By introducing the concept of 'delay time', we designate an intergradation between permanent removal and nonremoval. We also construct an evaluation function of network efficiency, based on congestion, which measures the damage caused by cascading failures. Finally, we investigate the effects of network structure and size, delay time, processing ability and packet generation speed on congestion propagation. Also, we uncover the relationship between the cascade dynamics and some properties of the network such as structure and size.