Order-P: an algorithm to order network partitionings

The authors study some of the issues involved in evaluating the probabilities of occurrence of network partitionings. Specifically, they consider network partitionings caused only by independent communication link failures. An algorithm that orders network partitioning in decreasing order of probability is proposed. This algorithm is similar to the most probable state enumeration (MPSE) algorithm proposed by V.O.K. Li and J.A. Silvester (1984). By looking at only the most probable partitionings, a good estimate of the performance of the network can be obtained. This approach also gives bounds on the network performance. Some replicated distributed database performance parameters like availability are also computed