A Predator Prey Approach to Diversity Based Defenses in Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

In light of the rise of malicious attacks on the Internet, and the various networks and applications attached to it, new approaches towards modeling predatory activity in networks could be useful. Past research has simulated networks assuming that all vertices are homogenously susceptible to attack or infection. Often times in real world networks only subsets of vertices are susceptible to attack or infection in a heterogeneous population of vertices. One approach to examining a heterogeneous network susceptible to attack is modeling a network as a predator prey landscape. If each type of vulnerable device is considered a heterogeneous species what level of species diversification is needed to keep a malicious attack from a causing a catastrophic failure to the entire network. This paper explores the predator prey analogy for the Internet and presents findings on how different levels of species diversification effects network resilience. The paper will also discuss the connection between diversification, competition, anti-trust, and national security.