Study on the resilience of command and control networks to cascading failures based on asymmetric group dependencies

In joint operations, Command and Control (C2) Networks are crucial to operational effectiveness, directly impacting the coordination and efficiency of the operational system. As the interdependence between Information and Communication (IC) Networks and Command and Control (C2) Networks becomes increasingly tight, cascading failures have emerged as a significant factor affecting network reliability. This paper investigates the resilience of cascading failures in coupled dependency networks of command and control and Information and Communication (IC) Networks. It proposes an asymmetric group-dependency coupled network model and introduces four improved load redistribution strategies based on this model. To address the cascading failure issue caused by the one-way dependency between Command and Control (C2) Networks and Information and Communication (IC) Networks, the paper uses a nonlinear capacity-load model to simulate the cascading failure process of the coupled network and conducts simulation experiments under different attack modes and parameters to comprehensively evaluate the resilience of the coupled network. The results show that the four proposed load redistribution strategies effectively enhance the resilience of the coupled network under various attack modes and intensities. In particular, the comprehensive redistribution strategy (CR) demonstrates higher robustness and resilience across multiple scenarios. Additionally, the study reveals that simply increasing the node load capacity and repair capability does not always lead to improved resilience performance for the coupled network. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed comprehensive redistribution strategy achieves 15-20% improvement in network resilience compared to traditional methods, with optimal performance observed at overload parameter [Formula: see text] and recovery coefficient [Formula: see text].