IT401 – Distributed Computing Systems – VI Sem – Dec 2010 -Apr 2011

Dr. Prakash Raghavendra

Classes will be held on Monday (10:05-11:00), Tuesday (11:05-12:00), and Wednesday (1pm-
1:55pm) @ L403. Course Outline (12 weeks of 3 classes each – total of about 36 hours)
1. Foundations: 6 hours (1.1, 1.2, 2.4 and 3)
a. Characterization of DS
b. Design Challenges/Design issues
c. Case Studies – CORBA/DCOM (3)
2. Theoretical Foundations: 4 hours (2.5)
a. Limitations of a Distributed System
b. Time and Global States
c. Lamport’s Logical Clock
d. Causal Ordering
3. Distributed Mutual Exclusion Algorithms: 8 hours (2.6)
a. Classification
b. Lamport’s, Ricart’s, Maekawa Algorithm
c. Token Based Algorithms
4. Agreement Protocol (2.8)
a. Byzantine and Lamport Algorithm
b. Applications
5. Concurrency Control Algorithms (2.18, 2.19, 2.20)
a. Theoretical Concepts
b. Lock Based and Time Stamp Based Algorithms
c. Optimistic Algorithm
6. System Infrastructure: 6 hours (2.2, 2.9, 2.10)
a. Operating System Support
b. Distributed File System
c. Distributed Multimedia Systems
d. Distributed Shared Memory Systems

References:

1. Distributed Systems by George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Tim Kindberg

2. Advanced Concepts in Operating Systems by Mukesh Singhal and Niranjan Shivaratri
3. Distributed Systems by A.S. Tanenbaum and M.V.Steen

Evaluation:
1. Quiz #1: Week of August 17th (4th Week) – 20%
2. Mid Sem: Week of Sept 7th (8th Week) – 30%
3. End Sem: Week of Nov 2nd (16th Week) – 50%
4. Assignments using Peersim simulator
5. Improvement test could be given as a special cases only (need to discuss with the instructor
early