Copyright © 2012 Yi-Kuei Lin and Louis Cheng-Lu Yeng. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Evaluating the reliability of a network with multiple sources to multiple sinks is a critical issue from the perspective of quality management. Due to the unrealistic definition of paths of network models in previous literature, existing models are not appropriate for real-world computer networks such as the Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network (TWAREN). This paper proposes a modified stochastic-flow network model to evaluate the network reliability of a practical computer network with multiple sources where data is transmitted through several light paths (LPs). Network reliability is defined as being the probability of delivering a specified amount of data from the sources to the sink. It is taken as a performance index to measure the service level of TWAREN. This paper studies the network reliability of the international portion of TWAREN from two sources (Taipei and Hsinchu) to one sink (New York) that goes through a submarine and land surface cable between Taiwan and the United States.