A BDD-Based Approach to Reliability Optimal Module Allocation in Networks

We consider the problem of finding an allocation of program modules to computing nodes in a network. The objective of this problem is to maximize the probability of successfully executing these modules. Nodes and links of the network are assumed to be subject to failures. We propose an algorithm for this problem which uses Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) extensively. BDDs have been used as a powerful means for reliability evaluation. In this paper we show that BDDs are also useful for reliability optimization. Through experiments, we show that the intensive use of BDD operations leads to a significant saving of computation time.