Fall 2009: CS 431/631/731 - Distributed Computing
Course Syllabus

Course Session

Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30-4:45 PM in Humanities Building (HB) 309 436

Course Instructor

Purushotham Bangalore
Email: puri@cis.uab.edu
Office: CH 130
Phone: 205-934-8604
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:00 PM (other times by appointment only)

Teaching Assistant

Ritu Arora

Email: ritu@cis.uab.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 6:00-8:00 PM (in CH 154)

Course Homepage

http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs631/fall2009/

Up-to-date information available on WebCT at http://www.uab.edu/academiccourses.

Prerequisite

Undergraduate level CS 330 with Minimum Grade of C

Description

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

Objectives

  1. To introduce key principles and best practices in distributed computing.
  2. To develop the problem solving skills and techniques necessary to develop distributed applications.

Textbook

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

Grading Policy

 

CS 431

CS 631

CS 731

Exams (2)

40%

30%

30%

Homework (4-5)

40%

40%

30%

Project

 

10%

10%

Term Paper

 

 

10%

Final Exam (Tuesday, Dec 8 - 4:15–6:45 PM)

20%

20%

20%

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

Late Submission

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). Assignments submitted after a week will receive a score of zero.

Class Conduct

  1. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner.
  2. Laptops will NOT be allowed in the class.
  3. Students must turn their cell phones/pagers OFF during the class.

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 exam or homework. 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.

Course Accommodations

Students who require course accommodations are requested to make an appointment with the instructor during office hours. Students with disabilities must register with Disability Support Services, HUC 516 or 934-4205, and provide an accommodation request letter to receive academic adjustments.

Add/Drop Policy

  1. Students can add/drop the course through August 25, 2009.
  2. Students can withdraw with a "W" for undergraduate students by October 14, 2009 (for graduate students it is December 3, 2009).
  3. 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 - at least twice a day (once in the morning and once at night). Also check the course WebCT page for up-to-date information and announcements. Instructor will check email frequently; e-mail is often the best way to contact the instructor.

Resources

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

 

Tentative Lecture Schedule

Date

Topics

Comments

Aug 18

Overview and Introduction

 

Aug 20

Chapter 1. Introduction

 

Aug 25

Chapter 1. Introduction

Assign Homework-1

Aug 27

Chapter 2. Architectures

 

Sep 1

Chapter 2. Architectures

 

Sep 3

Chapter 3. Processes

 

Sep 8

Chapter 3. Processes

Homework-1 Due

Assign Homework-2

Sep 10

Chapter 4. Communication

 

Sep 15

Chapter 4. Communication

 

Sep 17

Chapter 4. Communication

 

Sep 22

Chapter 6. Synchronization

Homework-2 Due

Assign Homework-3

Sep 24

Chapter 6. Synchronization

 

Sep 29

Exam-1

 

Oct 1

Chapter 5. Naming

 

Oct 6

Chapter 5. Naming

 

Oct 8

Chapter 5. Naming

 

Oct 13

Chapter 9. Security

Homework-3 Due

Assign Homework-4

Oct 15

Fall Break – No class

 

Oct 20

Chapter 9. Security

 

Oct 22

Chapter 9. Security

 

Oct 27

Web Services

 

Oct 29

Web Services

 

Nov 3

Chapter 7. Consistency and Replication

Homework-4 Due

Assign Homework-5 (Project)

Nov 5

Chapter 7. Consistency and Replication

 

Nov 10

Chapter 8. Fault Tolerance

 

Nov 12

Chapter 8. Fault Tolerance

 

Nov 17

Exam-2

 

Nov 19

Chapter 12. Distributed Web-based Systems

 

Nov 24

Chapter 12. Distributed Web-based Systems

 

Nov 26

Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class

 

Dec 1

Miscellaneous Topics

Homework-5 (Project) Due

Dec 3

Review for Final

 

Dec 8 (Tue)

4:15–6:45 PM

Final Exam