Reliability optimization of computer-communication networks

The evaluation of the reliability of a given computer communication network is a NP-hard problem. Hence, the problem of assigning reliabilities to links of a fixed computer communication network topology to optimize the system reliability is also NP-hard. A heuristic method is developed to assign links to a given topology so that the system reliability of the network is near optimal. The method provides a way to assign reliability measures to the links of a network to increase overall reliability. It is based on the principle that the most reliable link should be assigned to the most vulnerable edge. The method computes an importance order for the edges of the network and uses the order to assign link reliabilities. If there are fewer than six links in a network, it can be shown that the method gives optimal assignment