Performability evaluation of multicomponent fault-tolerant systems

Author

Grassi, Vincenzo ; Donatiello, Lorenzo ; Iazeolla, Giuseppe

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf., Pisa Univ., Italy

Volume

37

Issue

2

fYear

1988

fDate

6/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

216

Lastpage

222

Abstract

A combined performance and reliability (performability) measure for gracefully degradable fault-tolerant systems is introduced and a closed-form, analytic solution is provided for computing the performability of a class of unrepairable systems which can be modeled by general acyclic Markov processes. This allows the study of models which consider the degradation of more than one type of system component, e.g. processors, memories, buses. An efficient evaluation algorithm is provided, with an extensive analysis of its time and space complexity. A numerical example is provided which shows how the combined performance/reliability measure provides for a complete evaluation of the relative merits of different multiprocessor structures

Keywords

Markov processes; computational complexity; fault tolerant computing; multiprocessing systems; performance evaluation; (performability); acyclic Markov processes; closed form analytic solution; degradable computer systems; efficient evaluation algorithm; multicomponent fault-tolerant systems; multiprocessor structures; performance; reliability; space complexity; time complexity; unrepairable systems; Algorithm design and analysis; Art; Availability; Degradation; Fault tolerant systems; Markov processes; Performance analysis; Performance evaluation; Reliability theory; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Reliability, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9529

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/24.3744

Filename

3744