Reliable flow with failures in a network

In communication networks there is a growing need for ensuring that networks maintain service despite failures. To meet this need, the concept of delta-reliable channel is introduced; it is a set of communication channels along a set of paths. The delta-reliable channel meets the requirement that if a link or node fails, failure is limited to a maximum of delta . c (c = total capacity of the channels, and 0 < delta less than or equal to 1). A delta-reliable flow is such that the maximum number of flow failures is delta . f (f = value of the flow) of an edge or vertex of a network fails. The max-flow min-cut theorem of delta-reliable flow is demonstrated for the single-commodity case.