Network Reliability

Preface

The growth of reliability has assumed a new dimension in the recent years primarily because of the consequential impact(s) of failures of present day’s complex systems that may lead to day-to-day annoyance to the operational efficiency and uneconomical maintenance, and even to the extent of endangering life to our planet where a compromise with quality and reliability might be disastrous.

Although several books have been published in the area of reliability theory and practice, no book has been published on the topics covered in this book as the information presented in this book has either been confined to journals or given some space as a part of a chapter in a book. The topics covered in this book will interest not only the reliability community but also the teachers/educators and students of electrical, computer science, electronics, communication engineering with their allied areas. The text of this book is envisioned to be useful and can also serve as a one-semester course to senior undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate students in engineering. For researchers, practising engineers, managers, and designers, it would serve as a valuable reference and primer in the area of network reliability.

A very concerted effort has been made to keep the book ideally suitable for first course or even for a novice stepping into the area of network reliability. The mathematical treatment is kept as minimally as possible with an assumption on the readers’ side that they have basic ...