Robustness comparison of node and hyperedge failures in two transportation hypernetworks

Abstract

Computational hypernetwork models are constructed to investigate connectivity degradation caused by node and hyperedge failures in two case studies: airline city associations and high-speed railway lines. In the first case, cities are treated as nodes and groups of cities sharing the same code as hyperedges, whereas in the second case, stations are treated as nodes and complete railway lines as hyperedges. The study uses unweighted 2-section projections, numerical removal simulations, and quantitative connectivity metrics—including the largest connected component ratio, residual-node connectivity ratio, and node–hyperedge relative topological damage ratio—to compare different node and hyperedge failure strategies. The results show that the airline-layer projection is dense and highly redundant, yet it is most sensitive to the removal of large hyperedges; by contrast, the high-speed railway layer is sparse and relies more heavily on high-hyperdegree stations that connect multiple railway lines. Hyperedge size, overlap, and node participation patterns jointly shape network vulnerability, providing a quantitative computational basis for assessing the structural robustness of higher-order transportation networks.