Network reliability analysis based on percolation theory

Abstract In this paper, we propose a new way of looking at the reliability of a network using percolation theory. In this new view, a network failure can be regarded as a percolation process and the critical threshold of percolation can be used as network failure criterion linked to the operational settings under control. To demonstrate our approach, we consider both random network models and real networks with different nodes and/or edges lifetime distributions. We study numerically and theoretically the network reliability and find that the network reliability can be solved as a voting system with threshold given by percolation theory. Then we find that the average lifetime of random network increases linearly with the average lifetime of its nodes with uniform life distributions. Furthermore, the average lifetime of the network becomes saturated when system size is increased. Finally, we demonstrate our method on the transmission network system of IEEE 14 bus.