Reliability Analysis of Multi-Hardware–Software System with Failure Interaction

Abstract

The effect of hardware and software plays a critical role in achieving high device reliability. Failure to communicate with hardware and software can be responsible for a short life and low system operation. The failure of the corresponding hardware is one factor contributing to the program’s failure and vice versa. Hardware and software reliability research activities and failure encounters are being undertaken, and hardware and software reliability models are being proposed. The reliability study of a multi-hardware–software system with hardware–software–hardware, hardware–software–software, software–hardware–software, and software–hardware–software failure interaction receives less attention. This paper analyzes the reliability of a multi-hardware–software system whose failure is classified into hardware–software–hardware, hardware–software–software, software–hardware–software, and software–hardware–hardware. The failure and repair time of the running hardware–software and standby hardware–software is assumed to be exponentially distributed. Differential difference equations are built and resolved to derive explicit formulations for profit, mean time to failure, and steady-state availability. In addition, some significant results are presented in the graphs and tables.