Background:
Several techniques are available to evaluate the two-terminal reliability
(2TR) of static networks; however, the advent of dynamic networks in recent past, e.g., Delay Tolerant
Networks (DTNs), has made this task extremely challenging due to their peculiar characteristics
with an associated disruptive operational environment. Recently, a Cartesian product-based
method has been proposed to enumerate time-stamped-minimal path sets (TS-MPS)-a precursor to
compute the 2TR of such networks. However, it cannot be used to generate time-stamped-minimal
cut sets (TS-MCS). TS-MCS cannot only be used as an alternative to generate 2TR but also to
compute other unexplored reliability metrics in DTNs, e.g., the weakest link.
Objective:
To propose a novel approach to enumerate both TS-MPS and TS-MCS of a dynamic
network, thereby computing the 2TR of such networks.
Methods:
The proposed technique converts the time aggregated graph model of a dynamic network
into a Line Graph (LG) while maintaining the time-varying graph’s node reachability information.
This LG is used thereafter to generate TS-MCS as well as TS-MPS to compute 2TR of the network.
Results:
The DTN examples are presented to show the efficacy and salient features of our algorithm
to obtain 2TR of such networks.
Conclusion:
The terminologies and techniques used for studying/analyzing network reliability of
static networks can be extended to dynamic networks as well, e.g., the notion of minimal path sets
to TS-MPS or minimal cut sets to TS-MCS, to assess their network reliability-a potential area of
furthering network reliability research.
Development and Implementation of Measures for Structural and Reliability Importance by Using Minimal Cut Sets and Minimal Path Sets
