Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
System components of communication/computer networks are quite reliable in that their average uptimes are much larger than the average repair/replacement time of a failed unit. By taking this observation into account, a semiMarkov model is developed with a simple regenerative structure, thereby providing strong analytical and computational tractability. Expressions of a variety of dynamic performability measures, such as the cumulative system processing capacity and the task completion time, are explicitly derived. Computational procedures for evaluating such time-dependent performability measures are developed based on these theoretical results combined with the Laguerre transform method. The power and the efficiency of the computational procedures are demonstrated through a numerical example.