Distributed Systems

Lecturer: Dr J.M. Bacon (jmb@cl.cam.ac.uk)

No. of lectures: 8

Prerequisite courses: Operating System Foundations, Operating System Functions, Digital Communication, Introduction to Security

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.

Communication.

Revision of distributed IPC. Overview of synchronous middleware platforms. Asynchronous platforms - events.

Storage.

Design issues for network-based storage services.

Applications.

Active office, active home, events, composite events, mobility and location.

Recommended books:

Coulouris, G.F., Dollimore, J.B. & Kindberg, T. (1994). Distributed Systems, Concepts and Design. Addison-Wesley (2nd ed.).

Tanenbaum, A.S. (1995). Distributed Operating Systems. Prentice-Hall.

Mullender, S. (ed.) (1993). Distributed Systems. Addison-Wesley (2nd ed.).

Bacon, J. (1997). Concurrent Systems. Addison-Wesley (2nd ed.).