Distributed diagnosis of complex systems using timed failure propagation graph models

Timed failure propagation graph (TFPG) is a directed graph model that represents temporal progression of failure effects in physical systems. In this paper, a distributed diagnosis approach for complex systems is introduced based on the TFPG model settings. In this approach, the system is partitioned into a set of local subsystems each represented by a subgraph of the global system TFPG model. Information flow between subsystems is achieved through special input and output nodes. A high level diagnoser integrates the diagnosis results of the local subsystems using an abstract high level model to obtain a globally consistent diagnosis of the system.