Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus

The unavailability of information and communication services due to network-related incidents may have a significant impact on large organizations. Network incidents can hence be viewed as a risk for organizations whose consequences are not accounted for by traditional network design problems. In th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antonio Estepa, Rafael Estepa, German Madinabeitia, Juan Vozmediano
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2019-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8812657/
id doaj-940d250e2afb4a14bf69130f38a4d074
record_format Article
spelling doaj-940d250e2afb4a14bf69130f38a4d0742021-04-05T17:20:54ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362019-01-01712041112042310.1109/ACCESS.2019.29374498812657Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital CampusAntonio Estepa0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1841-3973Rafael Estepa1German Madinabeitia2Juan Vozmediano3Department of Telematics Engineering, University of Seville, Seville, SpainDepartment of Telematics Engineering, University of Seville, Seville, SpainDepartment of Telematics Engineering, University of Seville, Seville, SpainDepartment of Telematics Engineering, University of Seville, Seville, SpainThe unavailability of information and communication services due to network-related incidents may have a significant impact on large organizations. Network incidents can hence be viewed as a risk for organizations whose consequences are not accounted for by traditional network design problems. In this work, we address the problem of designing a reliable wired network from a risk analysis perspective. We propose a novel methodology for the quantitative assessment of the risk associated with network-related incidents in a hospital campus. We then define an optimization problem to find the topology that minimizes the network cost plus the expected loss over time attributable to the unavailability of corporate services to staff affected by network incidents. A case study illustrates our methodology and its benefits. Using available public information, we design the topology of a campus network for a large hospital where the cost of labor exceeds 200M€/year. The solution to our optimization problem is found through well-known genetic algorithms and provides a topology where network nodes with a higher impact on productivity exhibit higher reliability. As a consequence, the topology obtained reduces more than 95% (+392 000€) the expected annual lost profits when compared to common reduced-cost topologies such as the minimum-cost ring or the non-reliable minimum-cost tree, showing that investment in risk reduction pays off. Our contribution may be used by engineers to (re)design cost-effective reliable networks or by hospital managers to support decisions on updating present infrastructure based on risk reduction.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8812657/Network topology designreliabilityrisk analysis
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Antonio Estepa
Rafael Estepa
German Madinabeitia
Juan Vozmediano
spellingShingle Antonio Estepa
Rafael Estepa
German Madinabeitia
Juan Vozmediano
Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
IEEE Access
Network topology design
reliability
risk analysis
author_facet Antonio Estepa
Rafael Estepa
German Madinabeitia
Juan Vozmediano
author_sort Antonio Estepa
title Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
title_short Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
title_full Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
title_fullStr Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
title_full_unstemmed Designing Cost-Effective Reliable Networks From a Risk Analysis Perspective: A Case Study for a Hospital Campus
title_sort designing cost-effective reliable networks from a risk analysis perspective: a case study for a hospital campus
publisher IEEE
series IEEE Access
issn 2169-3536
publishDate 2019-01-01
description The unavailability of information and communication services due to network-related incidents may have a significant impact on large organizations. Network incidents can hence be viewed as a risk for organizations whose consequences are not accounted for by traditional network design problems. In this work, we address the problem of designing a reliable wired network from a risk analysis perspective. We propose a novel methodology for the quantitative assessment of the risk associated with network-related incidents in a hospital campus. We then define an optimization problem to find the topology that minimizes the network cost plus the expected loss over time attributable to the unavailability of corporate services to staff affected by network incidents. A case study illustrates our methodology and its benefits. Using available public information, we design the topology of a campus network for a large hospital where the cost of labor exceeds 200M€/year. The solution to our optimization problem is found through well-known genetic algorithms and provides a topology where network nodes with a higher impact on productivity exhibit higher reliability. As a consequence, the topology obtained reduces more than 95% (+392 000€) the expected annual lost profits when compared to common reduced-cost topologies such as the minimum-cost ring or the non-reliable minimum-cost tree, showing that investment in risk reduction pays off. Our contribution may be used by engineers to (re)design cost-effective reliable networks or by hospital managers to support decisions on updating present infrastructure based on risk reduction.
topic Network topology design
reliability
risk analysis
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8812657/
work_keys_str_mv AT antonioestepa designingcosteffectivereliablenetworksfromariskanalysisperspectiveacasestudyforahospitalcampus
AT rafaelestepa designingcosteffectivereliablenetworksfromariskanalysisperspectiveacasestudyforahospitalcampus
AT germanmadinabeitia designingcosteffectivereliablenetworksfromariskanalysisperspectiveacasestudyforahospitalcampus
AT juanvozmediano designingcosteffectivereliablenetworksfromariskanalysisperspectiveacasestudyforahospitalcampus
_version_ 1721539816993062912