Instructor Information

Instructor: Dan Harvey

Room: Computer Science Building #CS224

Phone: 552-6149

E-mail: harveyd@sou.edu

Office Hours: Monday 10:00-11:00

Wednesday: 10:00-11:00, 2:00-3:00

Thursday: 10:00-11:00, 2:00-3:00

Friday 10:00-11:00

Web Site: www.sou.edu/cs/harvey

The web site is available for quiz results, lab assignments, weekly handouts, current grade status, and contact with class members. Click on the appropriate class, and then select the desired option.

Class Times

Monday, Wednesday, (CS224) 3:00 to 4:50

Course Text

Distributed Systems; Principles and Paradigms

Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Maarten van Steen, Prentice Hall,

(2002), ISBN 0-13-088893-1

Course Objectives

This class explores the issues associated with creation of wide-area distributed systems. These grids are intended to create a universal source of pervasive dependable computing power to support new classes of applications. Essential tools and difficulties associated with their implementation are discussed. These tools include robust techniques for authentication, security, resource allocation, fault tolerance, and data sharing.

Tentative Chapter Coverage

Week Chapter Sections

1 1 Introduction
2 2 Communication

3 3 Processes

4 4 Naming

5 5 Synchronization

6 6 Consistency and Replication

7 7 Fault Tolerance

8 8 Security

9 9 Distributed Object Systems

10 Review

Course Grading

As a graduate course, we emphasize research oriented projects. Each student will work on a quarter long project. The focus of this project is to install a distributed package, develop some software that will use the package, and give a one hour class presentation discussing the experience. We'll discuss these requirements in detail in class. acceptable projects and packages in class. The term project will comprise 60% of the final grade.

Shorter projects with short presentations will also be assigned from time to time to reinforce the concepts we introduce in class lectures. These shorter projects will count for 20% of the final grade.

There will be a midterm exam, but no final. The midterm will cover the material covered in class up to that point. The midterm exam is worth 20% of the final grade.

Grade Breakdown: 93-100% A 90-92% A-

88-89% B+ 82-87 B 80-81% B-

78-79% C+ 72-77 C 70-71% C-

68-69% D+ 62-67 D 60-61% D-

Under 60 F