Constructing optimal procedures for testing series systems

An efficient algorithm to construct testing procedures for optimally identifying a single defective unit in a series system is presented. A series system such as a local loop of telephone networks is modeled as a sequence of units. The costs incurred by the testing process are general; traveling costs and testing costs are taken into consideration. Although the model assumes that only one defective unit exists in the system, the testing tree still leads to the isolation of a defective unit if two or more exist. This occurs because whenever one proceeds to a subtree, a defective unit corresponding to a vertex within that subtree is certain to exist