Network reliability based decision of Internet with multiple sources and multiple sinks

In a network system, decision makers always require appropriate tools for arranging the placement and timing of resources, whether in the construction or maintenance stage. The reliability evaluation is a fundamental issue that supports decisions made by the managers concerning enhancements to the system infrastructure. This paper proposes a modified stochastic-flow network model to evaluate the network reliability of the Internet where data is transmitted through several light paths. Network reliability is defined as the probability that the maximal flow is not less than a specified threshold. It is regarded as a performance index for measuring the service level of a communication network from the perspective of quality of service (QoS). This study focuses on the network reliability of a practical system, Taiwan Advance Research and Education Network (TWAREN), which is Taiwan's academic research network that provides mainly network communication services for Taiwan's research and academic society. An algorithm based on a new technique, minimal light path (MLP), is proposed to evaluate the network reliability of TWAREN's international scope. The supervisor can subsequently use the analysis results to improve the reliability of the entire system and make better decisions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.