Reliability analysis of weighted k-out-of-n: G performance sharing systems with multiple transmission loss levels

Abstract

This paper constructs a reliability model for the weighted k-out-of-n: G performance sharing which suffers random shocks and transmission loss. The proposed system has a common bus connecting all the components. Each component contains random performance and demand, and the demand should be satisfied by the performance. The common bus is applied to share performances among components, and has random capacity. Note that the performance might be lost during transmission and that the loss rate is affected by shocks. External shocks can be classified into invalid shocks, valid shocks and extreme shocks. One component fails if its demand cannot be satisfied after performance sharing. Each component carries a weight according to its importance degree. The system works if the total weight of the working components is no less than k. A method that combines the Markov process method and the universal generating function technique is used to evaluate system reliability. Numerical examples are illustrated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and method.