Optimal assignments of versions to processors in fault-tolerant computer systems

This paper addresses the problem of assigning n independently developed version of a program to n different computers to maximize system reliability. For any assignments, a component of the system is defined to be a version-computer pairing and a fault-tolerant system will consist of n such componen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Leow, Soo Kar, McAllister, David F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: World Scientific Publishing 1988
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/34068/1/a73%20-%20optimal%20assignment%20of%20version.pdf
Description
Summary:This paper addresses the problem of assigning n independently developed version of a program to n different computers to maximize system reliability. For any assignments, a component of the system is defined to be a version-computer pairing and a fault-tolerant system will consist of n such components. If system reliability is defined to be the probability of at least k working components, 1 ~ k ~ n, then the problem becomes an assignment problem for a k-out-of-n : G system. When k = 1; a linear assignment problem is obtained. For voting system, k must be at least 2 and, in this case the objective function is non-linear. This implies that linear assignment algorithms cannot be used to obtain the optimal assignment. However, we show the optimal assignment to be invariant for any integer k. Hence, solving the l-out-of-n : G system (linear AP) solves the general k-out-of-n:G system.