Cross-Domain Cascade Composition

Mechanism

Cascade propagation is the architectural primitive that projects an observed disruption at one region of a physical-world topology to other regions of that topology, producing governed coordination directives that preempt, mitigate, halt, or otherwise coordinate the response to ongoing propagation. The primitive operates across power, transportation, fluid, thermal, structural, biological, communication, logistics, economic, and cyber-physical topologies, and admits extension to any further topology class through governance-policy-defined topology registration without architectural modification.

Cross-domain cascade composition is the mechanism that combines cascade propagation across two or more of these topology domains. Rather than computing propagation within a single domain in isolation, the composition mechanism links propagation across domains to produce composite cascade determinations, that is, cascade-of-cascade determinations in which propagation in one topology becomes an input to propagation in another. The constituent cascade-propagation computations remain first-class governed observations admissible through the composite admissibility evaluator, so a composite determination does not flatten the contributing domains into a single undifferentiated alert.

Because a composed topology can span more than one governance authority, the cascade-authority resolution mechanism resolves responsibility when a topology spans multiple governance authorities. No single authority is forced to vouch for segments outside its custody; responsibility for each affected segment is resolved to the authority credentialed for that segment.

Verification proceeds through the governance chain. Each topology reference, propagation computation, directive emission, mitigation, halting event, refusal, and topology update is recorded in the governance-chain lineage field by the cascade-lineage recording mechanism. A downstream consumer presented with a composite cascade determination can trace it back through the contributing per-domain cascade-propagation observations, each carrying its own topology and propagation-function provenance.

Operating Parameters

The composition mechanism operates on governance-credentialed topologies. Cascade propagation is computed over a governance-credentialed graph of nodes and edges with authority-chained custody, and the topology, propagation function, and aggregation function each carry their own provenance into the governance chain.

Cross-domain composition draws on the cascade-computation engine, which executes the propagation function across the topology to produce per-node predicted affected regions, magnitudes, and arrival times. When propagation contributions arrive from more than one domain, an aggregation function combines multiple incoming propagation contributions where they meet at a receiving node, producing the composite cascade determination for that node.

Where the composed topology spans multiple governance authorities, the cascade-authority resolution mechanism resolves responsibility for the affected segments. A preemptive-mitigation directive generator produces governed coordination directives routed to downstream receiving agents, and a cascade-halting and containment mechanism specifies governance-policy-defined stop-conditions under which propagation is actively interrupted.

New topology classes enter the framework through governance-policy-defined topology registration, without architectural modification. The same composition mechanism applies to a newly registered topology domain as to the topology domains already declared.

Alternative Embodiments

Composition does not assume that every downstream agent can apply a proposed mitigation. The refusal and upstream-coordination mechanism handles cases where a downstream receiving agent cannot or should not apply a proposed mitigation, and the refusal is itself a first-class governed observation. A refusal enables upstream agents to seek alternative mitigations, solicit additional corroborating observations, or escalate to higher-authority coordination, rather than failing silently. Refusal-reason classifications include, without limitation, evidential-insufficiency refusal, capability-exceedance refusal, cost-threshold refusal, priority-conflict refusal, authority-insufficiency refusal, dispositional refusal, safety-boundary refusal, a composite refusal combining two or more of these, and any further governance-policy-defined refusal reason.

A rejected mitigation does not result in silent failure but triggers governance-chain-preserving escalation. Upstream coordinators receiving refusal observations may adapt their cascade-response strategy in subsequent propagation computations, and the refusal outcomes contribute to the topology-learning mechanism.

The topology-learning and adaptive-refinement mechanism updates the topology graph, the propagation functions, and the aggregation functions from observed propagation outcomes. Because composition draws on these same governance-credentialed structures, refinements learned in one cross-domain composition carry forward into later composite cascade determinations.

Composition With Other Mesh Features

Cross-domain cascade composition relies on the cascade-authority resolution mechanism when a composed topology spans multiple governance authorities. Responsibility for each affected segment is resolved to the authority credentialed for that segment, so a composite determination that crosses an authority boundary does not require any one authority to assert custody over segments outside its competence.

Composition draws on the composite admissibility evaluator: each contributing cascade-propagation observation is evaluated against the dispositional, integrity, confidence, and capability fields before admission, so a composite cascade determination is admitted only to the extent its constituent observations are themselves admissible. Refusal observations emitted by downstream agents are governed by the same evaluator and feed back into the composition through upstream coordination.

A cross-domain cascade originating in one mesh may be carried into another mesh through the lineage-preserving import mechanism, which preserves the original mesh identity in imported observations. The importing mesh applies its own conflict-resolution evaluator and may decline an imported observation under its own governance policy while retaining the imported lineage.

Distinction From Prior Art

The cascade propagation primitive, and the cross-domain composition built on it, is structurally distinguished from prior cascade-modeling architectures, including power-grid SCADA cascade-analysis, traffic simulation, epidemic modeling, supply-chain disruption modeling, and structural-failure modeling.

First, prior architectures operate on centrally-maintained models with ad hoc trust assumptions, whereas the present primitive operates on governance-credentialed topologies with authority-chained custody. Second, prior architectures produce unstructured alerts or central dashboards, whereas the present primitive produces governance-chain-preserving cascade-propagation observations admissible through the composite admissibility evaluator and routable through the observation routing primitive.

Third, prior architectures are narrowly scoped to a single cascade domain, whereas the present primitive operates across domains through a shared architectural mechanism. Fourth, and most relevant here, prior architectures do not support cross-domain cascade composition producing cascade-of-cascade determinations, whereas the present primitive produces such compositions. The present primitive also provides governance-chain-preserving refusal and upstream-coordination, authority resolution across multi-authority topologies, and governance-chain-preserving topology learning, none of which the prior architectures support.

Disclosure Scope

The disclosure encompasses the cross-domain cascade composition mechanism that combines cascade propagation across two or more topology domains to produce composite cascade determinations, the cascade-authority resolution mechanism for topologies spanning multiple governance authorities, the cascade-computation engine and its aggregation function for combining incoming propagation contributions at a receiving node, and the cascade-lineage recording mechanism.

The disclosure encompasses the topology domains explicitly enumerated, including power, transportation, fluid, thermal, structural, biological, communication, logistics, economic, and cyber-physical topologies, and any further topology class admitted through governance-policy-defined topology registration. The disclosure encompasses the refusal and upstream-coordination mechanism, the preemptive-mitigation directive generator, the cascade-halting and containment mechanism, and the topology-learning and adaptive-refinement mechanism, each operating on the composite cascade.

As taught in U.S. Provisional Application No. 64/049,409, cross-domain cascade composition operates on governance-credentialed topologies with authority-chained custody, producing governance-chain-preserving cascade-propagation observations that are admissible through the composite admissibility evaluator and routable through the observation routing primitive. This treatment supplies the auditable provenance required for composite, cross-domain cascade determinations to be admitted into governed records without parallel reconciliation infrastructure across each participating domain.