Modeling and control of complex interactive networks [Guest Editorial]

E nergy, telecommunications, transportation, and financial infrastructures are becoming increasingly interconnected, thus posing new challenges for their secure, reliable, and efficient operation. All of these infrastructures are themselves complex networks, geographically dispersed, nonlinear, and interacting both among themselves and with their human owners, operators, and users. No single entity has complete control of these multiscale, distributed, highly interactive networks, nor does any such entity have the ability to evaluate, monitor, and manage them in real time. In fact, the conventional mathematical methodologies that underpin today’s modeling, simulation, and control paradigms are unable to handle the complexity and interconnectedness of these critical infrastructures. Virtually every crucial economic and social function depends on the secure, reliable operation of infrastructures. Indeed, they have provided much of the good life that the more developed countries enjoy. With increased benefits, however, come increased risks. As these infrastructures have grown more complex to handle a variety of demands, they have become more interdependent. The Internet, computer networks, and our digital economy have increased the demand for reliable and disturbance-free electricity; banking and finance systems depend on the robustness of electric power, cable, and wireless telecommunications. Transportation systems, including military and commercial aircraft and land and sea vessels, depend on communication and energy networks. Links between the power grid and telecommunications and between electrical power and oil, water, and gas pipelines continue to be a lynchpin of energy