RELIABILITY MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS

In this paper we consider the problem of reliability modeling and analysis of hierarchical computer-based systems (HS) with modular imperfect coverage (MIPC) and common-cause failures (CCF). The MIPC and CCF can cause vertical dependence that runs through different levels of the system as well as horizontal dependence that runs across components or modules on the same system level. The consideration of these dependencies poses unique challenges to existing HS reliability analysis methods. We propose an efficient decomposition and aggregation approach named EDA-HS to the reliability evaluation of complex hierarchical systems with both MIPC and CCF as one way to meet the above challenges in an efficient and elegant manner. Our approach is to decouple the effects of both MIPC and CCF from the combinatorics of the solution. The approach is represented in a dynamic fault tree by a proposed probabilistic functional dependency gate and a proposed CCF gate modeled after the existing FDEP gate. We present the basics and advantages of the EDA-HS approach by working through an analysis of an example HS subject to MIPC and CCF.