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Path: utzoo!watmath!mwang
From: mwang@watmath.UUCP (mwang)
Newsgroups: ont.events
Subject: UW Sys. Semi., Dr. C. Colbourn on "The Construction of Reliable Series-Parallel Networks"
Message-ID: <5507@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Jul-83 16:12:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.5507
Posted: Tue Jul 12 16:12:14 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jul-83 00:15:59 EDT
Expires: Wed, 20-Jul-83 00:00:00 EDT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 38


     _D_E_P_A_R_T_M_E_N_T _O_F _C_O_M_P_U_T_E_R _S_C_I_E_N_C_E
     _U_N_I_V_E_R_S_I_T_Y _O_F _W_A_T_E_R_L_O_O
     _S_E_M_I_N_A_R _A_C_T_I_V_I_T_I_E_S

     _S_Y_S_T_E_M_S _S_E_M_I_N_A_R
                                - Tuesday, July 19, 1983.

     Dr. C.J. Colbourn of  the  University  of  Saskatchewan
     will  speak  on  ``The Construction of Reliable Series-
     Parallel Networks''.

     TIME:                1.30 PM

     ROOM:              MC 5158

     ABSTRACT

     The design of reliable computer communications networks
     is  a  topic  of  significant  interest; many heuristic
     methods have been developed for producing reliable net-
     works.   Perhaps the most widely used measure of relia-
     bility is a probabilistic one: the probability that the
     network  remains  connected  in an environment of (sta-
     tistically independent) link failures.  In  this  talk,
     we  characterize the series-parallel networks which are
     most reliable with respect to this probabilistic  meas-
     ure.   Remarkably  enough,  the  most  reliable series-
     parallel networks have  a  simple  characterization  in
     terms  of  degrees; in particular, the characterization
     is independent of many  typical  reliability  estimates
     such  as  connectivity and diameter.  The characteriza-
     tion is derived by solving a recurrence relation giving
     the  number of connected subnetworks of series-parallel
     networks.

                       July 12, 1983