  Many important complex networks, including critical infrastructure and
emerging industrial automation systems, are becoming increasingly intricate
webs of interacting feedback control loops. A fundamental concern is to
quantify the control properties and performance limitations of the network as a
function of its dynamical structure and control architecture. We study
performance bounds for networks in terms of optimal feedback control costs. We
provide a set of complementary bounds as a function of the system dynamics and
actuator structure. For unstable network dynamics, we characterize a tradeoff
between feedback control performance and the number of control inputs, in
particular showing that optimal cost can increase exponentially with the size
of the network. We also derive a bound on the performance of the worst-case
actuator subset for stable networks, providing insight into dynamics properties
that affect the potential efficacy of actuator selection. We illustrate our
results with numerical experiments that analyze performance in regular and
random networks.
