Dynamics of load entropy during cascading failure propagation in scale-free networks

In this Letter, we introduce the concept of load entropy, which can be an average measure of a network's heterogeneity in the load distribution. Then we investigate the dynamics of load entropy during failure propagation using a new cascading failures load model, which can represent the node removal mechanism in many real-life complex systems. Simulation results show that in the early stage of failure propagation the load entropy for a larger cascading failure increases more sharply than that for a smaller one, and consequently the cascading failure with a larger damage can be identified at the early stage of failure propagation according to the load entropy. Particularly, load entropy can be used as an index to be optimized in cascading failures control and defense in many real-life complex networks.