Híradástechnika - Journal on Communication, 1992 (43. évfolyam)
1992-01-01
VOLUME XL! 11 JANUARY 1992 A t present it is a basic task of the technical—scientific— economic life to put into practice the newest results of electronics, considering also the cost factors. One of the most important conditions for introducing new development results is to assure the dependability a new term for the description of reliability, availability, maintainability and maintenance support) of items (components, units, equipments, systems and services) during all phases of their life cycle. Since 1964, the Scientific Society for Telecommunications has organized a series of international symposia on reliability in electronics. The RELECTRONIC symposia were giving a survey of reliability theory and practice in the field of electronics. At each symposium the new results and the actual problems of dependability have been reviewed. The 8th Symposium on Reliability in electronics was held in August 1991 in Budapest with sessions on: Reliability Theory; Quality of Services; Network Reliability; Software Reliability; Failure Physics; Reliability Test Methods. In addition to the 96 papers presented in these sessions, two round table discussions were held in the following topics: • Standardization in the field of dependability • Service quality In this special issue we would like to give an overall review on the main topics of the conference, therefore 6 papers were selected for publication. For the sake of illustration, these papers discuss the problems of robot reliability data collection, the evaluation of service and network reliability, performance-reliability analysis (stochastic reward models), interval availability analysis of large Markovian systems, and software quality. The other papers are also valuable and interesting and they can be found in the Proceedings of the Symposium which can be ordered from the Scientific Society for Telecommunications (HTE), H-1372 Budapest, P.O.Box 451, Hungary. From the papers and lively discussions between the experts from 26 countries, the following main conclusions can be drawn: In reliablity theory, great attention should be paid to develop reliability-performance measures (stochastic reward models) for characterizing the dependability of complex systems and networks by using mathematical models of non-constant failure intensity, Bayesian estimations and the application of different statistical tests. Dependability has become known as the science of predicting, optimizing and estimating the dependability measures of components and systems. Therefore, an automated data collection system should be developed and dependability data should be established for obtaining the relevant information. The quality assurance of services is considered as a basic requirement. The users’ needs should be satisfied at an economic cost level. In the future the higher quality should be paid for by the users. In the field of electronic components, the electromigration processes leading to failures should be investigated. It is very important to establish a relationship between the production yield and reliability. The importance of failure analysis and short time tests has been emphasized. A great attention should be paid to the dependability design of services, networks and complex systems using the reliability data of components. The required quality, and dependability of services based on users’ needs can be achieved by suitable allocation of the dependability parameters. The optimum allocation policy is a shophisticated technical and economic problem. The background of this work is the calculation method combined with the performance of the network topology and the reliability of the elements. Different allocation methods were developed for different types of the networks. In the dependability design an automated data collection system can be used advantageously for obtaining the necessary informations. The changes in policy and economy in the Eastern Countries have a considerable effect on the field of dependability and quality. Presently, the market determines the dependability requirements for services and products. Therefore, system dependability should meet the users’ need. In the field of dependability, poor communication can be observed between the reliability experts and the top management of companies. These communication lines should be improved by means of training and education courses, a better standardization strategy, conferences and seminars. A companywide dependability management and assurance procedure should be introduced. The next RELECTRONIC Symposium will be held in 1994, and the International Advisory Board recommended that the efforts should be focused on key topics: Quality and Reliability of Components (joind to the ESRET ’94 Conference); System Dependability Including Safety and Security in the Telecommunication Industry. These conferences will be organized simultaneously by the Scientific Society for Telecommunications. Finally, I hope this Special Issue, completed with informations on the reliability of products and services, business, research and education news, will be of interest to all experts from academic and industrial environments who are actively working in the fields of reliability, maintainability, availability and maintenance support of products and services. A. BALOGH Albert Balogh received the B.Sc. degree in mathematics at Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen in 1957. Since 1961 he has been dealing with the reliability testing of electronic components and reliability estimation problems. He has published about 80 papers in these topics. From 1961 to 1991 he was the senior research worker and later the head of reliability department in the Industrial Research Institute for Electronics (later Microelectronics Company). In 1985 he received the Ph.D. degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is Honorary Associate Professor of the Technical University, Budapest. He is the secretary of the Reliablity Committee of the European Organization for Quality (EOQ) and the chairman of the Reliability Section of the Hungarian Telecommunications Society. In 1981 he received the Quality Award of EOQ. EDITORIAL