Reliability evaluation of a revised stochastic flow network with uncertain minimum time

This paper constructs a revised stochastic flow network to model a realistic computer network in which each arc has a lead time and a stochastic capacity. The minimum time to send a specified amount of data through the network is thus uncertain. Hence, this paper mainly proposes an approach for evaluating the system reliability that d units of data can be transmitted through k minimal paths simultaneously within the time threshold T. The idea of lower boundary points for (d,T), the minimal system states satisfying the demand d within the time threshold T, is proposed firstly. All system states meeting the time and demand requirements can be represented as the union of subsets generated from all lower boundary points for (d,T), and thus the system reliability is computed quickly.