Redundant System Test Point Allocation and Mission Reliability Estimation Procedures

The steadily increasing complexity of spaceborne digital systems tends to lower the reliability of these systems that operate in an environment where the cost of failure is extremely high. The reliability of digital systems can be increased by redundancy techniques. The majority of work in redundancy has concentrated on the development of synthesis techniques and initial reliability estimation procedures. Relatively little effort has been spent on the development of procedures for testing redundant systems and estimating their reliability when some components may be failed. This paper describes 1) a procedure for allocating a limited number of test points within a redundant digital system, and 2) a compatible procedure for estimating the probability of successfully completing a mission, using information obtained from the allotted test points.