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Distributed Systems
Lecturer: Dr J.M. Bacon
(jmb@cl.cam.ac.uk)
No. of lectures: 8
Prerequisite courses: Concurrent Systems and Applications, Operating Systems, Digital Communication I, Introduction to Security
Aims
The aims of this course are to study the fundamental characteristics of
distributed systems; their models and architectures; the design of
distributed algorithms and applications that exploit rapidly evolving
technology.
Lectures
- Introduction.
Characteristics specific to distributed systems. Software
design. Client-server and object models. Distribution transparency.
Security requirements (implementation details are covered in the
Security course).
- Algorithms and application protocols. Consistency of
data. Asynchronous and synchronous algorithms. Atomic commitment
protocols. Process groups. Election. Mutual exclusion.
- Time.
Physical and logical time. Event ordering. Clock synchronisation.
Message delivery ordering.
- Naming.
Design of names, pure or hierarchical. Interpretation of names in a
context. Binding. Long-term consistency.
- Access control.
Capabilities in distributed systems. Role-based access control.
- Communication. Revision of distributed IPC. Overview of
synchronous middleware platforms. Asynchronous platforms - events.
- Storage.
Design issues for network-based storage services.
- Applications.
Active office, home and city. Events, composite events, mobility and
location-tracking. Electronic health service.
Objectives
At the end of the course students should
- understand the properties of distributed systems
- understand the architectural components and their design
- understand some basic distributed algorithms and the assumptions on
which they are based
- be aware of some emerging application areas
Recommended books
Tanenbaum, A.S. & van Steen, M. (2002). Distributed Systems.
Prentice-Hall.
Coulouris, G.F., Dollimore, J.B. & Kindberg, T. (2001). Distributed
Systems, Concepts and Design. Addison-Wesley (3rd ed.).
Mullender, S. (ed.) (1993). Distributed Systems. Addison-Wesley
(2nd ed.).
Bacon, J. (1997). Concurrent Systems. Addison-Wesley (2nd ed.).
Bacon, J. & Harris, T. (2003). Operating Systems: Distributed and
concurrent software design. Addison-Wesley.
Next: E-Commerce
Up: Easter Term 2003: Part
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Christine Northeast
Wed Sep 4 14:43:05 BST 2002