Link-level vulnerability indicators for real-world networks

It is computationally expensive to find out where vulnerable parts in a network are. In literature a variety of methods were introduced that use simple indicators (measured in real-life or calculated in a traffic simulator) to pre-determine the seriousness of the delays caused by the blocking of that link and thereafter perform a more detailed analysis. This article reviews the indicators proposed in the literature and assesses the quality of these indicators. Furthermore, a multi-linear fit of the indicators is made to find a better, combined, indicator to rank the links according to their vulnerability. The article shows that different indicators asses different links to be vulnerable. Also combined they cannot predict the vulnerability of a link. Therefore, it is concluded that to find vulnerable links, one has to look further than link-based indicators. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.