Communication networks constitute the foundational infrastructure supporting informationized applications across numerous domains, and their security is therefore of critical importance. Systematic analysis and evaluation of the vulnerability of communication networks have become a central research topic in the fields of network security and complex systems. Firstly, from the perspective of complex network theory, the concept of the vulnerability of communication networks is formally defined, and commonly used evaluation metrics at the structural, functional, and dynamical levels are summarized. Secondy, within a unified framework of critical node identification in complex networks, the intrinsic relationships among three representative research paradigms, which include node importance ranking, network dismantling, and cascading failure, are analyzed, and the representative methods and recent research advances under each paradigm are reviewed. Finally, in light of the practical characteristics of communication networks, the major challenges are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.
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