ECE 67300 - Distributed Computing Systems

Course Details

Credits: 3

Areas of Specialization:

  • Computer Engineering

Counts as:

Normally Offered:

Each Spring

Campus/Online:

On-campus only

Catalog Description:

This course discusses the design issues of distributed computing systems (DCS). The general theory of distributed transaction management, reliability, and resource management is discussed. Various algorithms and specification methodologies for DCS are introduced. A general coverage of three major areas of DCS, namely: distributed operating systems, distributed databases and distributed AI, is provided. The discussion is augmented with various case studies.

Required Text(s):

None.

Recommended Text(s):

None.

Lecture Outline:

Weeks Topic
1 Network Architecture, ISO reference model, Application Layers, Examples will be drawn from Airline Reservation Systems, Distributed Situation Assessment Systems, and Banking System (CIRRUS)
3 General Theory of Distributed Computing Systems: Distributed Transactions and Nested Transactions, Atomicity and Reliability, Concurrency Control, Commit Protocols, Failure Modes and Recovery Protocols, Dynamic Resource Failure Modes and Recovery Protocols, Dynamic Resource Allocation & Deadlock Handling, Synchronization, Control Structures, Performance, Security, User Interface and Network Transparency.
3 Modeling and Specification of Distributed Systems. Guardian, Argus, Actor Model, Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP), Joyce and ADA.
4 Distributed Operating Systems (DOS): Issues, Interprocess Communication, Remote Procedure Calls, Distribute File Systems (Distributed File Server) & File Transfer Protocol, Crash Recover, Design Philosophy and case studies of various DOS: LOCUS (UCLA), Cronus, Alpha, VKermal, Mach.
2.5 Distributed Database Systems: Issues, Homogeneous and heterogeneous databases, distributed query processing; heterogeneous databases, distributed query processing; distributed lock management, Update Synchronization, Database distributed lock management, Update Synchronization, Database Partitioning Failures, Deterministic & Optimistic Protocols for Failure Recover, Case studies: Distributed Heterogeneous System using Oracle, INGRES and Sybase DBMS.
2 Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Issues in Distributed Problem Solving. Control Structures. Knowledge Representation, Distributed Knowledge Sources, Functional Architecture of a DAI Node, Case studies: Contact Net Protocol, Distributed Speech Understanding System (Hearsay II), Scientific Community Metaphor, Examples of Application of DAI in various fields such as Manufacturing, Medicine etc. are drawn.
2 Exams and Presentation of Term Papers (Term paper may involve development project on Oracle and INGRES Dbases.)

Assessment Method:

none