A New Method to Evaluate the Reliability of Multistate Information Networks

Multistate information networks (MINs) are the basis of many modern communication networks, and the reliability evaluation of MINs not only contributes to the structural design of networks but also facilitates the development of modern communication technologies. However, the evaluation of the reliability of MINs in studies so far always requires massive calculations. To improve the calculation efficiency of MIN reliability evaluation, in this article, a new algorithm with lower time complexity than traditional algorithms is proposed. The comparative experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing MIN reliability algorithms, and the running time of the proposed algorithm is at least 31.96% less than that of the node-based binary-addition tree algorithm.

I. Introduction

Multistate networks can be divided into multistate flow networks (MFNs) and multistate information networks (MINs) [1], [2], [3]. MFNs focus on the distribution of arcs in various states within a network while adhering to flow conservation principles. However, MINs primarily investigate variations in node states without requiring compliance with flow conservation laws [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. Currently, MINs are widely used in all aspects of modern society, such as social networks [11], [12], transportation network [13], [14], wireless sensor networks [15], [16], [17], computer and communication systems [1], [2], [6], [8], and satellite systems [18], [19].