Snowflake-shaped networks are easiest to mend
New Scientist, 3 Oct 2014
Networks shaped like delicate snowflakes are the ones that are easiest to fix when disaster strikes.
Power grids, the internet and other networks often mitigate the effects of damage using redundancy: they build in multiple routes between nodes so that if one path is knocked out by falling trees, flooding or some other disaster, another route can take over. But that approach can make them expensive to set up and maintain. The alternative is to repair networks with new links as needed, which brings the price down – although it can also mean the network is down while it happens.
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