On evaluation of reliability and integrated performance-reliability parameters for distributed systems
Anup Kumar, Dharma Prakash Agrawal · 1989
This dissertation presents a new technique called a Fast Algorithm for Reliability Evaluation (FARE) for computing the reliability of Distributed Computing Systems (DCSs). It does not require any a priori information about multiterminal connections. FARE is compared with an existing two-step method in terms of execution time for various network topologies. An algorithm is also developed for obtaining the minimum number of disjoint terms to give the lower bound on the reliability expression from either a given set of paths between the terminal pair of a network or a given set of spanning trees for a network. Two new parameters for measuring the system effectiveness of a DCS have been introduced. These parameters are the Distributed Program Performance Index (DPPI), and the Distributed System Performance Index (DSPI). The DPPI is defined as the weighted reliability of successfully executing a program in a DCS, while the DSPI is given as the weighted reliability of successfully executing all the programs residing on a DCS. These parameters accurately reflect the degradation in performance. An efficient algorithm has been developed to compute these parameters. This generalized algorithm is also capable of computing several other reliability parameters. Many examples are included to illustrate the steps of the algorithms proposed in this dissertation.