CS 431/631/731 Distributed Computing

Course Syllabus – Fall 2007

 

Course Instructor

Purushotham Bangalore

Email: puri@cis.uab.edu

Office: CH 130

Phone: 205-934-8604

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday: 10:45 A.M. – 11:45 A.M.

                      Other times by appointment only.

Course Session

Tuesday and Thursday: 9:30 A.M. – 10:45 P.M.

Room: University Blvd Office Building (UBOB) 222

Course Homepage

http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs431/fall2007

All course material can be accessed through WebCT: http://www.uab.edu/academiccourses/.

Previous Semester Webpage

http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs431/fall2006

Prerequisite

CS 330 Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming

                 OR

Permission of Instructor

Teaching Assistant

Zekai Demirezen (zekzek@cis.uab.edu)

Office: CH 154 (CIS Undergraduate Laboratory)

Office Hours: TBD

Description

Three hours lecture.

Introduction to distributed systems, distributed hardware and software concepts, communication, processes, naming, synchronization, consistency and replication, fault tolerance, security, client/server computing, web technologies, enterprise technologies.

Textbook

Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms, 2nd Edition by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Maarten van Steen. ISBN-10: 0132392275, ISBN-13: 9780132392273. Publisher: Prentice Hall. 2007.

Grading Policy

                                

CS 431

CS 631/731

Exams (2)

40 %

30 %

Homework (5)

40 %

40 %

Final Exam

20%

20 %

Project/Term Paper

 

10 %

 

Final Exam will be held on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 from 8:00 A.M. to 10:30 AM.

 

Students enrolled in CS 631 and CS 731 will have additional questions on homework and exams. 

Late Submission

1.       All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Any assignment turned in after this deadline is considered late. Late assignments will lose 10% for every 24-hour period, up to a maximum of 50% (weekends and holidays count as one 24-hour period). Any assignment submitted one week after the due date will receive a score of zero.

2.       All assignments must be turned in even if they are late to pass this course. Failure to submit any assignments will result in a grade of ‘F’.

Class Attendance

1.   Attendance is mandatory for this course. If you know you will be absent for a legitimate reason, let the instructor know. If you are sick bring a doctor's excuse or a written university excuse to resolve the absences. An absence has to be resolved as soon as possible - otherwise it will not be treated as an excused absence.

2.   Students auditing this course are expected to attend the lectures. Auditing students with more than three unexcused absences will receive a failing grade.

3.   There will be NO make-up exams. A student anticipating an excused absence from an exam should make arrangements in advance to sit for the exam at another time.

Academic Honesty

Students who plagiarize a computer program (or parts of a program), get others to write a program (or parts of a program), or are found cheating on a quiz/exam, will be reported for academic dishonesty. Anyone who is caught cheating will receive a 0 on a given test or assignment. If a second offense occurs, the student will receive an F in the class. This includes both the provider of the information as well as the receiver of the information. Any student who violates the university's academic honesty policy will be reported for academic discipline. All university and department policies related to students are included here by implication.

Add/Drop Policy

1.      A student can drop the course through August 29, 2007.

2.      A student can add the course through August 29, 2007.

3.      A student can withdraw with a "W" by October 22, 2007. (Undergraduate)

4.      A student can withdraw with a "W" by December 4, 2007. (Graduate)

5.      For more details about add/drop policies check with Registration/Academic Records.

E-mail

Every student will be required to use his/her official email address that is blazerid@uab.edu. New students must login and configure their email addresses. For more details on obtaining blazerid and configuring email please see: http://www.uab.edu/blazerid. All email communications will be made using this address. Additional instructions or announcements will be sent by e-mail, so check your mail often. Also check the course webpage and the discussion forum for up-to-date information and announcements. Instructor will check email frequently, so e-mail is often the best way to contact the instructor.

Tentative Schedule

Date

Topic

Comments

Aug 23

Overview and Introduction

 

Aug 28 – 30

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Assign Homework-1 (multi-threaded client/server program)

Sep 4 – 6

Chapter 2 – Architectures

Chapter 3 – Processes

 

Sep 11 – 13

Chapter 4 – Communication

Homework-1 Due

Assign Homework-2 (Java RMI program)
Instructions

Sep 18 – 20

Chapter 4 – Communication

Chapter 6 – Synchronization

 

Sep 25 – 27

Chapter 6 – Synchronization

Homework-2 Due

 

Oct 2 – 4

Exam 1

Assign Homework-3 (multi-tier application)
Tomcat Server Setup Instructions

Oct 9 – 11

Chapter 5 – Naming

 

Oct 16 – 18

Chapter 5 – Naming

Web Services

 

Oct 23 – 25

Chapter 6 – Consistency and Replication

Homework-3 Due

Assign Homework-4 (web services)
Axis Setup Instructions

Oct 30 – Nov 1

Chapter 6 – Consistency and Replication

 

Nov 6 – 8

Chapter 9 – Security

Homework-4 Due

Nov 13 – 15

Exam 2

Assign Homework-5 (final project)

Nov 20

Chapter 12 – Distributed Web-Based Systems

 

Nov 22

No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday

 

Nov 27 – 29

Chapter 8 – Fault Tolerance

 

Dec 4

Virtualization, Grid Computing

Review for Finals

Homework-5 Due

Dec 11

8:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Final Exam

 

Resources

Java Developer's Almanac - Code Samples: http://java.sun.com/developer/codesamples/examplets/
Java RMI Tutorial: http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/rmi/RMI.html

Last Updated: August 22, 2007
by Purushotham Bangalore
Course Homepage:
http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs431/fall2007

 

Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences   The University of Alabama at Birmingham
115A Campbell Hall, 1300 University Boulevard, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
Phone: 205.934.2213 * Fax: 205.934.5473
Disclaimer for official UAB web pages