A m log m algorithm to compute the most probable configurations of a system with multi-mode independent components

In this note, we propose a m log m algorithm to find the k most probable configurations of a system of n multi-mode independent components, with at most d modes each. m denotes the size of the problem, i.e. max(nd, k). This problem originates in network performance analyzes, in which focusing on the most probable configurations is a means to reduce computational costs. Up to this note, the best known algorithm to extract the most probable configurations was O(n2d2+k log k). Our algorithm achieves thus a susbstantial improvement. © 2005 IEEE.