Max-Throughput for (Conservative) k-of-n Testing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a polynomial-time combinatorial algorithm for maximizing throughput in conservative k-of-n testing, extending previous work on parallel pipelined filter ordering to a broader class of testing problems.

Contribution

It presents the first polynomial-time combinatorial algorithm for conservative k-of-n testing throughput maximization and extends existing algorithms to standard k-of-n testing.

Findings

Polynomial-time algorithm for conservative k-of-n testing throughput.

Extension of previous algorithms to standard k-of-n testing.

Improved efficiency in parallel testing scenarios.

Abstract

We define a variant of k-of-n testing that we call conservative k-of-n testing. We present a polynomial-time, combinatorial algorithm for the problem of maximizing throughput of conservative k-of-n testing, in a parallel setting. This extends previous work of Kodialam and Condon et al., who presented combinatorial algorithms for parallel pipelined filter ordering, which is the special case where k=1 (or k = n). We also consider the problem of maximizing throughput for standard k-of-n testing, and show how to obtain a polynomial-time algorithm based on the ellipsoid method using previous techniques.