Reliability evaluation algorithms for distributed systems

The authors introduce two techniques for computing the reliability of a distributed computing system (DCS). The first scheme uses two steps and requires enumeration of multiterminal connections which, in turn, leads to the reliability expression. The second technique, called FARE (Fast Algorithm for Reliability Evaluation), does not require an a priori knowledge of multiterminal connections for computing the reliability expression. A performance parameter called the communication cost index (CCI) is defined. The authors compare algorithms with an existing method in terms of computer time and memory requirement. The results show that FARE outperforms two-step methods.<>