Availability of Priority Standby Redundant Systems

A priority standby system consisting of two repairable units is considered. One unit, the priority unit, is always in service except when it is failed. The standby unit is in service only for the duration of repair of the priority unit. Expressions are derived for the availability of such a system for both preemptive and nonpreemptive repair. The results assume reasonably general failure-time and repair-time distributions of the priority and standby units. The preemptive priority results are relatively insensitive to the form of the distributions.