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System reliability of assured accuracy rate for multi-state computer networks from service level agreements viewpoint

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Abstract

From the viewpoint of service level agreements, the transmission accuracy rate is one of critical performance indicators to assess internet quality for system managers and customers. Under the assumption that each arc’s capacity is deterministic, the quickest path problem is to find a path sending a specific of data such that the transmission time is minimized. However, in many real-life networks such as computer networks, each arc has stochastic capacity, lead time and accuracy rate. Such a network is named a multi-state computer network. Under both assured accuracy rate and time constraints, we extend the quickest path problem to compute the probability that d units of data can be sent through multiple minimal paths simultaneously. Such a probability named system reliability is a performance indicator to provide to managers for understanding the ability of system and improvement. An efficient algorithm is proposed to evaluate the system reliability in terms of the approach of minimal paths.

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Correspondence to Yi-Kuei Lin.

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Yi-Kuei Lin is currently a Chair Professor and the Chairman of Industrial Management Department, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, Republic of China. He received a Bachelor degree in Applied Mathematics Department from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. He obtained his Master degree and Ph.D. degree in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, Republic of China. He has the honor to get the Outstanding Research Awards from National Science Council of Taiwan in 2008 and 2010, respectively. His research interest includes performance evaluation, stochastic network reliability, operations research, and telecommunication management.

Cheng-Fu Huang is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow of Industrial Management Department, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, Republic of China. He received his Bachelor degree in the Department of Industrial Engineering from Feng Chia University, Taiwan, in 2004; Master degree in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taiwan, in 2006; and the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Industrial Management in National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, in 2010. His research interest includes stochastic network reliability, performance evaluation, and quality management.

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Lin, YK., Huang, CF. System reliability of assured accuracy rate for multi-state computer networks from service level agreements viewpoint. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. 23, 196–211 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-014-5240-2

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