An approach for combinatorial performance and availability analysis

The common approach to formulating and solving combined reliability/availability and performance problems is to use Markov reward models. However, the large size of state spaces is a problem that plagues Markovian models. Combinatorial models have been used for modeling reliability and availability of complex systems without paying the price of large Markov models. Yet, assumptions of two-state behavior of components (and that of the system), independence assumptions of component failure behavior, and restrictive repair assumptions decrease the potential of combinatorial models for realistic systems. A combinatorial approach is proposed for the combined performance and availability analysis of coherent repairable systems with multi-state components, allowing inter-dependent component state transitions. Examples showing the usefulness of the approach are presented.<
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