Multi-valued Decision Diagrams for k-Out-of-n Three-State Systems

Abstract

One of the current issues in reliability analysis is investigation of complex systems that are composed of many components of variable nature. This variability implies that such systems have usually several performance levels and, therefore, they are modelled as Multi-State Systems (MSSs). Analysis of MSSs is a challenging task that consists of several steps. The principal task is a creation of such model that can be processed in a reasonable time. One of the possible ways for solving this task is application of tools related to multiple-valued logic. In this paper, we focus on a specific class of MSSs that is known as k-out-of-n systems. We develop a method that can be used for creation of a good model for this kind of MSSs. The presented method is based on multi-valued decision diagrams.