  We study critical random Boolean networks with two inputs per node that
contain only canalyzing functions. We present a phenomenological theory that
explains how a frozen core of nodes that are frozen on all attractors arises.
This theory leads to an intuitive understanding of the system's dynamics as it
demonstrates the analogy between standard random Boolean networks and networks
with canalyzing functions only. It reproduces correctly the scaling of the
number of nonfrozen nodes with system size. We then investigate numerically
attractor lengths and numbers, and explain the findings in terms of the
properties of relevant components. In particular we show that canalyzing
networks can contain very long attractors, albeit they occur less often than in
standard networks.
