Performability modeling with continuous accomplishment sets

A general modeling framework that permits the definition, formulation, and evaluation of performability is described. It is shown that performability relates directly to system effectiveness, and is a proper generalization of both performance and reliability. A hierarchical modeling scheme is used to formulate the capability function used to evaluate performability. The case in which performance variables take values in a continuous accomplishment set is treated explicitly

Performability evaluation of the SIFT computer

Performability modeling and evaluation techniques are applied to the SIFT computer as it might operate in the computational evironment of an air transport mission. User-visible performance of the total system (SIFT plus its environment) is modeled as a random variable taking values in a set of levels of accomplishment. These levels are defined in terms of four attributes of total system behavior: safety, no change in mission profile, no operational penalties, and no economic process whose states describe the internal structure of SIFT as well as relavant conditions of the environment. Base model state trajectories are related to accomplishment levels via a capability function which is formulated in terms of a 3-level model hierarchy. Performability evaluation algorithms are then applied to determine the performability of the total system for various choices of computer and environment parameter values. Numerical results of those evaluations are presented and, in conclusion, some implications of this effort are discussed

Closed-form solutions of performability

Methods which yield closed form performability solutions for continuous valued variables are developed. The models are similar to those employed in performance modeling (i.e., Markovian queueing models) but are extended so as to account for variations in structure due to faults. In particular, the modeling of a degradable buffer/multiprocessor system is considered whose performance Y is the (normalized) average throughput rate realized during a bounded interval of time. To avoid known difficulties associated with exact transient solutions, an approximate decomposition of the model is employed permitting certain submodels to be solved in equilibrium. These solutions are then incorporated in a model with fewer transient states and by solving the latter, a closed form solution of the system's performability is obtained. In conclusion, some applications of this solution are discussed and illustrated, including an example of design optimization

Models and techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of aircraft computing systems

System models that provide a basis for the formulation and evaluation of the performability of commercial aircraft computer system are developed. Quantitative measures of the system effectiveness are formulated. Analytic and simulation techniques for evaluation of the effectiveness and performability of a proposed or existing aircraft computer were studied

Performability measure for acyclic Markovian models

AbstractContinuous-time Markov processes with a finite-state space are generally considered to model degradable fault-tolerant computer systems. The finite space is partitioned as ∪mi=1 Bi, where Bi stands for the set of states which corresponds to the configuration where the system has a performance level (or reward rate) equal to τi. The performability Yt is defined as the accumulated reward over a mission time [0, t]. In this paper, a renewal equation is established for the performability measure and solved for both “standard” and uniform acyclic models. Two closed form expressions for the performability measure are derived for the two types of models. Furthermore, an algorithm with a low polynomial computational complexity is presented and applied to a degradable computer system

METAPHOR (version 1): Users guide

General information concerning METAPHOR, an interactive software package to facilitate performability modeling and evaluation, is presented. Example systems are studied and their performabilities are calculated. Each available METAPHOR command and array generator is described. Complete METAPHOR sessions are included

GCSRL - A Logic for Stochastic Reward Models with Timed and Untimed Behaviour

In this paper we define the logic GCSRL (generalised continuous stochastic reward logic) that provides means to reason about systems that have states which sojourn times are either greater zero, in which case this sojourn time is exponentially distributed (tangible states), or zero (vanishing states).\ud In case of generalised stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs) and stochastic process algebras it turned out that these vanishing states can be very useful when it comes to define system behaviour. In the same way these states are useful for defining system properties using stochastic logics. We extend both the semantic model and the semantics of CSRL such that it allows to attach impulse rewards to transitions emanating from vanishing states. We show by means of a small example how model checking GCSRL formulae works