Network Resilience: Exploring Cascading Failures within BGP∗

Recent studies [1] have revealed vulnerabilities in the routing infrastructure of the Internet. It has been conjectured that these vulnerabilities could lead to cascading failures. In this paper we develop simple models for the interaction of routers, looking specifically at the clique topology. We construct two related models, and our analysis indicates that it is indeed possible to have cascading failures in systems such as a BGP clique. We encounter phase transitions in both our models, and we explore the dependence of system parameters on the nature and intensity of the phase transitions. Finally, we comment on the insights that we gain from our analysis.

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