A simulation algorithm for source-terminal communication network reliability

In order to evaluate the capacity of a communication network architecture to resist faults of some of its components, several reliability models are extensively used. We consider the source-terminal network reliability parameter. The exponential time complexity of exact methods for its evaluation leads to the use of simulation schemes. We present a new simulation algorithm, which recursively changes the original problem into the reliability problem for a smaller network obtained from the previous one by conditioning out one of its paths. This algorithm results in a more efficient (accurate) estimator than the standard one; it is easy to implement, and has good overall performance, as shown by experimental results.