Fuzzy reliability of gracefully degradable computing systems

Conventional reliability analysis rely on the probability model, which is often inappropriate for handling complex systems due to the lack of sufficient probabilistic information. For large complex systems made up of many components, the uncertainty of each individual parameter amplifies the uncertainty of the total system reliability. To overcome this problem, the concept of fuzzy approach has been used in the evaluation of the reliability of a system. In this paper, we use a gracefully degradable redundant computing system to capture the effect of coverage factor and repair on its reliability. Markov models on the other hand can handle degradation, imperfect fault coverage, complex repair policies, multi-operational-state components, dependent failures, and other sequence dependent events. In order to have the advantages of both fuzzy and Markov approaches, an attempt has been made to develop a fuzzy based Markov model.

[1]  Amy R. Reibman,et al.  Modeling fault coverage and reliability in a fault-tolerant network , 1990, [Proceedings] GLOBECOM '90: IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference and Exhibition.

[2]  M. N. Gopalan,et al.  ANALYSIS OF COLD-STANDBY SYSTEMS — CUTTING AND CLUSTERING THE STATE SPACE , 1995 .

[3]  Andrew L. Reibman,et al.  Modeling the Effect of Reliability on Performance , 1990, SIGMETRICS.

[4]  Lotfi A. Zadeh,et al.  Outline of a New Approach to the Analysis of Complex Systems and Decision Processes , 1973, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern..

[5]  Kai-Yuan Cai,et al.  Introduction to Fuzzy Reliability , 1996 .

[6]  A. G. Hawkes,et al.  AVAILABILITY OF A SERIES SYSTEM WITH REPLACEMENT AND REPAIR , 1990 .

[7]  Sonny Myrefelt,et al.  The reliability and availability of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems , 2004 .

[8]  Zhijie Pan,et al.  Redundancy optimization in consideration of uncertainty , 1996 .

[9]  Daniel P. Siewiorek,et al.  Reliable Computer Systems: Design and Evaluation, Third Edition , 1998 .

[10]  Thomas F. Arnold,et al.  The Concept of Coverage and Its Effect on the Reliability Model of a Repairable System , 1973, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[11]  Jean Arlat,et al.  Estimators for fault tolerance coverage evaluation , 1993, FTCS-23 The Twenty-Third International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing.

[12]  Günter Haring,et al.  Performance Evaluation: Origins and Directions , 2000, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[13]  James J. Higgins,et al.  A literature survey of the human reliability component in a man-machine system , 1988 .

[14]  Santosh K. Shrivastava,et al.  Reliable Computer Systems , 1985, Texts and Monographs in Computer Science.

[15]  T. N. Issa.  Stochastic availability analysis of operational data systems in the Deep Space Network , 1991 .

[16]  Balbir S. Dhillon,et al.  Reliability analysis of non-maintained parallel systems subject to hardware failure and human error , 1985 .