Network reliability - the state of the art guest editors' preface

During the past ten years or so there have been some important new developments in system reliability that have resulted in more efficient ways to evaluate system reliability than were known heretofore, and in greater understanding of the underlying structural relationships among the elements of the system. These developments came about as a result of the efforts of a number of researchers who were interested in subjects such as graph theory, combinatorics, and algorithm theory, subjects that are recognized by, but are relatively unfamiliar to, readers of this Transactions.