Recent advances on reliability evaluation and optimization of linear multistate consecutively connected systems
: With the progress of technology, the model of linear multistate consecutively connected systems (LMCCS) is applied more and more widely, such as telecommunication systems, internet of things, etc. LMCCS contains a series of linearly arranged nodes and any disconnection between nodes will lead to the failure of the whole system. Thus, the reliability of a linear multistate system is affected by many factors such as the positioning of elements. In order to be able to incorporate different types of complicated practical factors, researchers have proposed different extensions for LMCCS model. Besides, models are proposed to study the optimal system configurations of such systems considering reliability and some other objectives or constraints. Facing amounts of works on LMCCS, this paper aims to review these literatures, classify them, and elicit some future research directions.