ITEC801 Introduction to distributed systems
ITEC801 Introduction to Distributed Systems
Semester 2, 2011
Faculty: Science; Department: Computing
General Information
Credit points: 4
Convenor: Dr. M. Hitchens
Prerequisites: A final year undergraduate knowledge of computer networks. Also useful
would be some knowledge of operating systems. No programming knowledge is required.
Students should read this unit guide carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.
About This Unit
Most real computing is distributed computing. Electronic commerce, web services, remote document exchange, even internet gaming, it's all distributed computing. Sure, it's not hard to throw together a simple web service, but once you want to get a bit more sophsticated than that things start getting complicated. How many copies the data does my distributed application have? How does it keep those copies consistent? How do the various parts of the application communicate? How does my application handle the inevitable delays of network traffic? What happens when messages fail to arrive? What technologies are there for me to build distributed applications and how do I choose between them? How do I go beyond the simple client-server paradigm? Those are just some of the questions we'll exmaine in this unit.
We'll cover both fundamental issues and recent trends in distributed computing. We examine the complexities of distributed systems communications such as partial failures, timing and synchronisation, messaging paradigms, middleware, naming and state management. Lectures will mostly be expository and conceptual and aim to provide a solid understanding of distributed systems and related enduring issues. The unit provides a sound conceptual foundation for your practical work in other units.
Teaching Staff
| Role | Name | Room | Office hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convener, Lecturer | Dr. M. Hitchens | michael.hitchens AT mq.edu.au | E6A338 | TBA |
| Lecturer | Dr. R. Shankaran | rajan.shankaran AT mq.edu.au | E6A337 | TBA |
All administrative emails related to ITEC801 should be sent to michael.hitchens AT mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.
Teaching and Learning
Classes
Each week you should the lecture/tutorial class. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.
Resources to assist your learning
Textbook
Couloris G., Dollimore, J., and Kindberg, T. Distributed Systems Concepts and Design, Fourth Edition, Addison Wesley, 2005.References
Tannenbaum, A. S., Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms, Prentice-Hall, 2002
Ince, D., Developing Distributed and E-commerce Applications, Second Edition, Addison Wesley, 2003.
Liu, M.L., Distributed Computing, Principles and Applications, Pearson/Addison Wesley, 2004.
Website
The web site for this unit is provided through the University's iLearn system. iLearn can be found at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au. If you are enrolled in this unit you should have access to the material on iLearn once you log on.
Discussion Boards
The discussion board for this unit can be accessed its iLearn site.
Staff-Student Liaison Committee
The Department has established a Staff-Student Liaison Committee to provide all students studying a Computing unit the opportunity to discuss related issues or problems with both students and staff.
The committee meets twice during the semester. For each meeting, an agenda is issued and minutes are taken. These are posted on the web at http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/postgrad/
If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Director of Teaching (Dr. Christophe Doche) or the Head of Department (Prof. Bernard Mans). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.
Student Support Services
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.
Topic List
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Distributed computing paradigms |
| Week 2 | Goals, protocols, sockets |
| Week 3 | Remote Procedure Call (RPC) & Remote Method Invocation (RMI) |
| Week 4 | Client Server Paradigms |
| Week 5 | Inter-process Communication |
| Week 6 | Cloud Computing |
| Week 7 | Middleware |
| Week 8 | Group Communication |
| Week 9 | Time |
| Week 10 | Consistency and Replication |
| Week 11 | Naming |
| Week 12 | Fault Tolerance |
| Week 13 | Examination discussion |
Teaching and Learning Strategy
INTEC801 is taught via lectures and tutorials. Lectures are used to introduce new material and discuss concepts and issues in the study of distributed systems. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorials are used to work through problems to test your developing knowledge of the concepts presented in lectures. Tutorials are important in develpoing a deeper understanding of the issues introduced in lectures.
Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the texbook and references.
Learning outcomes
A student successfully completing this unit will:
- have an understanding of the complexities of distributed system development
- have an understanding of the goals and architectures of distributed systems
- have knowledge of important issues in distributed systems, including time, inter-process communication, state management, distributed computing paradigms, middleware and naming
- have gained an understanding of the middleware technologies that support distributed applications such as RPC, RMI and object-based middleware
- be able to apply their knowledge in analysing and designing distributed systems.
- Knowledge development and Application of knowledge for L.O.'s #1-#4
- Distributed system design proficiency for L.O. #5
See also the different standards corresponding to these criteria.
Graduate Capabilities
All academic programs at Macquarie University seek to develop a range of graduate capabilities. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:
- Discipline Specific Knowledge and skills
- Effective Communication
- Problem Solving and Research Capability
- Commitment to Continuous Learning
Assessment
The assessment policy of Macquarie University requires the use of standards based assessment. In this context, the learning outcomes are aligned with the assessment tasks and the performance of each student is evaluated against a set of predefined criteria and standards.
Assessment tasks
The following tables summarizes the different aspects of the assessment in this unit. In particular, it links each task to the learning outcomes of the unit.
| Task | Due Date | Workload | Feedback | Learning outcomes assessed | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorial Problems | weekly, in class | 20 hours | week after submission | #1-#4 | 10% |
| Assignments | week 8,12 | 80 hours | two weeks after submission | #1-#5 | 40% |
| Final Examination | Final examination period | n/a | n/a | #1-#5 | 50% |
Note that a certain number of requirements must be fulfilled
in order to pass this unit.
If you cannot complete a piece of work please contact the convenor before the due date. Check also
the special consideration policy.
A more detailed description of each task is given below.
Tutorial Problems
Every week (starting with week 2) tutorial problems will be posted on the web before that week's class. Those problems will deal with the material of the previous week. The problems will deal with the concepts, ideas, techniques, etc discussed in lecture. Each week you will need to submit your attempts at the questions before the lecture.
Assignments
The assignment material will involve conceptual questions about the unit material and some design work in distributed systems.
Examination
The final exmination will consist of questions based on the lcture material, tutorial problems and assignments. The exmination will be closed book, three hours long and held int he end of semester exmination period.
All learning objectives will be assessed in the final examination, which will cover the entirety of the lecture material.
Pass All Assessment Items
In order to achieve a pass grade in the unit, you will need to achieve at least a pass in the final examination and average a pass in the assignment work.
General notes on assessment
For all work you are encouraged to:
- set your personal deadline earlier than the actual one;
- keep backups of all your important files;
- make sure that no-one else picks up your printouts.
Late submission of the assignments will be accepted, but penalised at the rate of 10% per working day late. If you cannot submit material on time because of illness or other adverse circumstances, please contact the convenor at the earliest possible time.
Standards and Grading
Unlike many units, INFO111/MAS111 covers a wide range of areas. Therefore it is not appropriate to identify core knowledge and assess the students' mastery of that at increaing levels of complexity. Instead, the attainment of learning outcome #1 is based on the amount of knowledge the student gains across the range of the unit, as assessed by performance in the tutorials, essay and final game documentation. Learning outcome #2 is assessed through performance in designing and delivering a completed game, with accompanying documentation. Learning outcome #3 is assessed through tutorial tasks, quality of written work and in the verbal description of your game to the tutor. Performance in assessment is based on a progression of attainment, as indicated below:
| L.O. 1-4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge development | ||||
| Application of knowledge | ||||
| L.O. 5 | ||||
| Analyse and Design Distributed Systems | ||||
Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part of the assessment of the unit. In particular, to pass this unit you must do all of the following:
- obtain a combined mark of at least 18 out of 40 for assignments.
- obtain a combined mark of at least 22.5 out of 50 for the final examination.
- obtain an overall mark of at least 50% (calculated according to the weightings given above).
Obtaining a higher grade than a pass in this unit will require a student to obtain the required total number of marks (Credit - 65, Distinction - 75, High Distinction - 85) and obtain the following minimal results in the final written exmination:
- Credit 55%
- Distinction 65%
- High Distinction 75%
Note that you must obtain these marks in the examination and get the total across the unit given above (Credit - 65, Distinction - 75, High Distinction - 85).
Changes since last offering
We have given marks to the tutorial problems to give them a clearer focus.
Policies
Macquarie is developing a number of policies in the area of learning and teaching. Approved policies and associated guidelines and procedures can be found at Policy Central. There you will find the University's policy and associated procedures on:
- Assessment
- Special Consideration
- Plagiarism
- Grade Appeal
Assessment
The procedure implementing the assessment policy can be found here.
Special Consideration
Special Consideration is intended for a student who is prevented by serious and unavoidable disruption
from completing any unit requirements in accordance with their ability.
In this case, you should follow the procedure implementing the policy available here.
The actual application form is available here.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism involves using the work of another person and presenting it as one's own.
The Department, in line with University policy, treats all cases seriously. In particular, the
Department, and the University, keeps a record of all plagiarism cases. This record
is referred to so that an appropriate penalty can be applied to each case.
More details are available
here.
Grade Appeal
In case of problems arising from the final unit grade with the academic staff members, the first step is to request a review of your grade. The Department recommends that you submit a request in writing to the convenor of the unit in order to arrange a review session. If this review does not resolve the problem, a formal Grade Appeal can be lodged. The policy covering the process can be found here. Applications can be made here.