Study on Cascading Failure and Elasticity of UAV Swarm Communication Network

As an important new force in information warfare, the UAV swarm has attracted more and more attention from militarists and scholars of various countries. At present, large-scale and low-cost UAV swarms have been gradually applied to reconnaissance operations. The invulnerability and elasticity of its communication network are the key factors that determine whether the swarm can successfully complete the reconnaissance mission. The research object of this study is the UAV swarm communication network, which performs reconnaissance missions. The swarm network is extracted as a three-layer interdependent network model. We apply scale-free network theory and the new connection probability equation to establish three subnetworks. Then, a three-layer interdependent network is constructed by using the interlayer connection rules of the nodes with the largest degree. The classical M-L model is extended to an interdependent network. An interlayer load redistribution rule is proposed to simulate the cascading failure process of swarm networks. Then, we attack network nodes randomly and observe the invulnerability and elasticity of this network. The simulation results show that the performance of the interdependent network is better than that of the single-layer network due to the effect of the interdependent links. By analyzing the experimental results, some feasible suggestions are put forward to improve the invulnerability and elasticity of reconnaissance UAV swarm communication network.