Reliability Prediction of Computing Network with Software and Hardware Failures

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the reliability and queueing performance indices for the fault-tolerant computing network having a finite number of unreliable operating components with the provision of warm standby components. Operating and standby components are governed by dedicated software which is also prone to random failure. On failure of operating components, available standby component(s) may switch from the standby state to operating state with negligible switchover time. The switchover process may also fail due to some automation hindrance. The computing network is also subjected to common cause failure in lieu of external cause. The studied redundant fault-tolerant computing network is framed as a Markovian machine interference model with exponentially distributed inter-failure times and service times. For the reliability prediction of the computing network, various performance measures, namely, mean-time-to-failure (MTTF), reliability/availability, failure frequency, etc., have been formulated in terms of transient-state probabilities which we have obtained using the spectral method. To show the practicability of the developed model, numerical simulation has been done. Sensitivity analysis of reliability and other indices of the computing network with respect to different network parameters has been presented, and results are summarized in the tables and graphs. Finally, future scope and concluding remarks have been included.