Question

I am hard time understanding the concept of system complexity.
Can any one help me understand the relationship between the complexity of overall system and the complexity of all the subsystems?

Expressed as C(S) = C(SS1) + C(SS2)+..C(SSn)

C(S): Complexity of entire system

C(SS1): Complexity of simple subsystem

Answer 1

All that equation is trying to say is that a systems complexity is the sum of its parts.

So

C(S) = X (overall complexity)

Now break it up into distinct sub systems

C(S) = C(SS1) + C(SS2)+..C(SSn)

Calculate each systems complexity:

C(SS1) = A

C(SS2) = B

C(SSn) = n

If we add those together it will be the same as C(S) aka:

X = A + B + ..n

C(S) = X = A + B + .. + n = C(SS1) + C(SS2)+..C(SSn)

Please make sure you note what S.Lott said above, that the equation by no means implies complexity as a linear relationship of a system to its subsystems, aka the system complexity doesn’t necessarily grow linearly as you add new components.