In this paper, we study the fault tolerance of 3D mesh networks under a more realistic model in which each network node has an independent failure probability. We develop a novel technique to formally derive lower bounds on the connectivity probability for 3D mesh networks. Our study shows that 3D mesh networks of practical size can tolerate a large number of faulty nodes thus are reliable enough for multicomputer systems. We also show a number of advantages of 3D mesh networks over other popular network topologies. For example, compared to 2D mesh networks, 3D mesh networks are much stronger in tolerating faulty nodes, while for practical network size, the fault tolerance of 3D mesh networks is comparable with that of hypercube networks but enjoys much lower node degree in the networks.
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