Modeling and analysis of systems with multimode components and dependent failures

A model is presented for the reliability and performance analysis of systems where components can go through degraded states in a statistically dependent manner. The model, called the cause-based multimode model (CBMM), is based on the idea that deviations of components from the `up´ state have underlying physical causes which can be explicitly identified and are statistically independent. The effects of several causes can be combined in a flexible manner. System reliability/performance measures can be computed by an approximation method, based on the consideration of the most probable states. Such states can be efficiently generated by using algorithms developed for an earlier multimode, independent-failure model by S.N. Chiou and V.O.K. Li (see IEEE J. Selected Areas in Commun., vol.SAC-4, no.7, p.1156-61 (1986))