Working Papers are interim reports on work of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and have received only limited review. Views or opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Institute or of its National Member Organizations. Reader aids: Purpose: Provide an algorithm for designing optimal network conngurations. Special math needed: Elementary probabi...

Collecting phenological data is a slow process. Although such data have been collected by a number of organizations, the reliability of these data is not known because the data-generating process cannot be repeated. No further observations to improve the reliability can be obtained. However, the data usually consist of several overlapping observation series and this overlap can be utilized to c...

This paper addresses the mixed integer reliability redundancy allocation problems to determine simultaneous allocation of optimal reliability and redundancy level of components based on three objective goals. System engineering principles suggest that the best design is the design that maximizes the system operational effectiveness and at the same time minimizes the total cost of ownership (TCO...

In this paper, using supply chain operational reference, the reliability evaluation of available relationships in supply chain is investigated. For this purpose, in the first step, the chain under investigation is divided into several stages including first and second suppliers, initial and final customers, and the producing company. Based on the formed relationships between t...

Today, many organizations are moving their computing services towards the Cloud. This makes their computer processing available much more conveniently to users. However, it also brings new security threats and challenges about safety and reliability. In fact, Cloud Computing is an attractive and cost-saving service for buyers as it provides accessibility and reliability options for users and sc...

Associating the pattern in text data with the pattern with time series data is a novel task. In this paper, an approach that utilizes the features of the time series data and domain knowledge is proposed and used to identify the patterns for exchange rate modeling. A set of rules to identify the patterns are firstly specified using domain knowledge. The text data are then associated with the ex...