Home // International Journal On Advances in Networks and Services, volume 5, numbers 3 and 4, 2012 // View article

The Impact of Multi-Outage Episodes on Large-Scale Wireless Voice Networks

Authors:
Andy Snow
Yachuan Chen
Gary Weckman

Keywords: RAMS; network outages; simulation; survivability; reliability; maintainability; wireless network infrastructure

Abstract:
Large wireless network infrastructures experience concurrent or overlapping service outages due to equipment and link failures. The frequency, duration, and impact of such episodes are of interest to users and network operators alike. Here, a research project which investigates through simulation the characteristics of concurrent network outages in large wireless network infrastructures is presented. The dependability attributes used to gain a perspective on this issue are network reliability, availability, maintainability and survivability. To assess these attributes in this setting, a new term, called an “impact epoch”, is introduced. Epochs are defined as single, concurrent, or overlapping outages in time, consisting of n different outages. A wireless network is expanded in size and epochs observed as the network grows. The new proposed metrics offer valuable insights into the management of restoration resources. Simulations proved invaluable in identifying multi-outage epochs, as well as modeling their occurrence, frequency, duration, and size – results which are analytically intractable for assessing large networks.

Pages: 174 to 188

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2012. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 31, 2012

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2644