This text provides a variety of probabilistic, discrete-state models used to assess the reliability and performance of computer and communication systems. The models included are combinatorial reliability models (reliability block diagrams, fault trees and reliability graphs), directed, acyclic task precedence graphs, Markov and semi-Markov models (including Markov reward models), product-form queueing networks and generalized stochastic Petri nets. A practical approach to system modelling is followed; all of the examples described are solved and analyzed using the SHARPE tool. In structuring the book, the authors have been careful to provide the reader with a methodological approach to analytical modelling techniques. These techniques are not seen as alternatives but rather as an integral part of a single process of assessment which, by hierarchically combining results from different kinds of models, makes it possible to use state-space methods for those parts of a system that require them and non-state-space methods for the more well-behaved parts of the system.
The SHARPE (Symbolic Hierarchical Automated Reliability and Performance Evaluator) package is the "toolchest" that allows the authors to specify stochastic models easily and solve them quickly, adopting model hierarchies and very efficient solution techniques. All the models described in the book are specified and solved using the SHARPE language; its syntax is described and the source code of almost all the examples discussed is provided. As well as being suitable for use in advanced-level courses covering reliability and performance of computer and communications systems, this book is also intended for researchers and practising engineers whose work involves modelling of system performance and reliability.