Combining network reductions and simulation to estimate network reliability

Network reduction techniques are mainly used with exact approaches such as factoring to compute network reliability. However, exact computation of network reliability is feasible only for small sized networks. Simulation is an alternative approach to estimate network reliability. This paper discusses the effect of using network reductions before estimating network reliability using a simulation. Theoretical and empirical results are provided to understand the source of variance reduction in simulation due to network reductions.