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 realworld 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, and model the disaster event as a line segment or a circular cut. We develop algorithms that find a worstcase line segment cut and a worst-case circular cut. Then, we obtain numerical results fo...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Sebastian Neumayer, Gil Zussman, Reuven Cohen, Eytan Modiano
• Keywords: Circular Cut, Communications, INFOCOM 2009, Line Segment, Specific Geographical Locations