CS 454 Distributed Systems
Objectives
This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of distributed computer systems, assuming the availability of facilities for data transmission. The structure of distributed systems using multiple levels of software is emphasized.
Intended Audience
CS 454 is a course for CS major students and is normally completed in the fourth year.
Related Courses
Prerequisites: CS 350 or SE 350; Computer Science students only. CS 456 is not a prerequisite, but it is useful to be familiar with the information it provides about the underlying facilities assumed in this course.
References
Distributed Systems - Principles and Paradigms,2nd Edition, by A.S. Tanenbaum and M. van Steen, Prentice Hall, 2002. (Required)
Distributed Systems - Concepts and Design, 4rd ed., G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore, and T. Kindberg, Addison Wesley, 2001.(Optional)
Schedule
3 hours of lectures per week. Normally available in Winter, and Spring.
Notes
- Assignments are weighted heavily in computing final marks and include significant implementation work.
Outline
Fundamentals of Distributed Algorithms (10 hours)
Clock synchronization, partial order of events, election algorithms, agreement algorithms, distributed shared memory, process synchronization.
File and Directory Systems (6 hours)
Naming and name resolution; name, directory, and file servers; caching.
Distributed databases (3 hours)
Locking and concurrency control, deadlock handling, stable storage, two-phase commit.
Security and Protection (3 hours)
Encryption, public and private keys, authentication, privacy.
Distributed Services (6 hours)
File transfer, electronic mail, World-Wide Web.
Examples of Distributed Systems (8 hours)
Some of: Mach, Amoeba, OSF DCE, CORBA, DCOM.
