Critical embedded systems have to provide a high level of dependability. In
automotive domain, for example, TDMA protocols are largely recommended because
of their deterministic behavior. Nevertheless, under the transient
environmental perturbations, the loss of communication cycles may occur with a
certain probability and, consequently, the system may fail. This paper analyzes
the impact of the transient perturbations (especially due to Electromagnetic
Interferences) on the dependability of systems distributed on TDMA-based
networks. The dependability of such system is modeled as that of
"consecutive-k-out-of-n:F" systems and we provide a efficient way for its
evaluation
