This document provides information on a distributed systems course, including its objectives, learning outcomes, synopsis, content outline, assessment, and grading points. The course aims to provide understanding of distributed systems and emphasize problems, principles, techniques, infrastructure, and applications. Key topics covered include communication, distributed objects, web services, security, naming/trading, time/coordination, concurrency control, transactions, and fault tolerance. Students will be assessed through coursework, a midterm, project, and final exam.

1. Distributed System
STIJ3063
Universiti Utara Malaysia

2. Contents
1 Course Objectives
2 Course Learning Outcomes
3 Synopsis
4 Content Outline of the Course
5 Assessment
6 Grading Points
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3. Course Objectives
 Students are expected to:
 present the principles underlying the
functioning of distributed systems.
 expose to the design, implementation,
technology used, and research issues of
distributed systems.
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4. Course Learning Outcomes
 Explain the definition of a distributed system, why you would design
a system as a distributed system, and what the desired properties of
such systems are.
 Construct the principles underlying the functioning of distributed
systems, describe the problems and challenges associated with these
principles, and evaluate the effectiveness and shortcomings of their
solutions.
 Organize the principles are applied in contemporary distributed
systems and distributed infrastructure software, explain how they
affect the software design, and be able to identify features and
design decisions that may cause problems.
 Design a distributed system and software that fulfil requirements with
regards to desired properties, be able to recognize when this is not
possible, and explain why.
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5. Synopsis
This course aims to provide the understanding and
knowledge pertaining to distributed system. Students will be
given a systematic, clear and comprehensive idea of a
distributed system. The course will emphasize problems that
occur during construction of distributed systems, principles
and techniques to solve them, infrastructure and components
for distributed systems, and practical applications of
distributed systems.
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6. Content Outline of the Course
 Characterization of Distributed Systems
 Introduction to Distributed Systems
 Examples of Distributed Systems
 Common Characteristics
 Basic Design Issues
 Communication
 Communication Protocols
 Client/Server Communication
 Group Communication
 Event Service
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7. Content Outline of the Course
 Distributed Objects and Remote Invocation
 Conceptual Framework
 Remote Procedural Call
 Distributed Object
 Remote Invocation
 Web Services
 Introduction
 Web Services
 Service descriptions and IDL for web services
 A directory service for use with web services
 XML security
 Coordination of web services
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8. Content Outline of the Course
 Security
 Introduction
 Styles of Attacks
 Cryptography
 Authentication, Security Protocols and Systems
 Naming, Trading, and Peer-to-Peer Systems
 Naming
 Trading
 P2P Systems
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9. Content Outline of the Course
 Time, Coordination and Agreement
 Time
 Physical time
 Logical time
 Coordination and agreement
 Multicast communication
 Concurrency Control
 Introduction
 Concurrency Control Techniques
• Two-phase locking protocol
• Optimistic concurrency control protocol
 Example of Concurrency Control Service
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10. Content Outline of the Course
 Transactions
 Introduction
 Transaction Concepts
 Two Phase Commit
 Distributed Transactions and Deadlocks
 Example Transaction Service
 Fault Tolerance and Replication
 Introduction
 Transaction Recovery
 Failure Classification and Masking
 Replication
 Example Fault Tolerance Service
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11. Assessment
 Course work 60%
 Assignments 4 each of 5 marks
 Quiz 1 quiz of 5 marks
 Mid Term 1 of 15 marks
 Project 1 of 20
 Final examination 40%
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12. References
 George Coulouris (2005) Distributed Systems: Concepts & Design,
4th Edition, New York:Addison-Wesley.
 Amjad Umar (1997). Object-Oriented Client/Server Internet Environments,
London : Prentice Hall.
 David S. Linthicum (2000) Enterprise Application Integration, New York
Addison-Wesley.
 Robert Orfali (1996) The Essential Client/Server Survival Guide (second
ed.), New York :John Wiley.
 Tagg Roger (1997). Designing distributed and cooperative information,
London:Mc-Graw Hill.
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13. Grading Points
Numerical Marks Alphabet Grades
85-100 A
80-84 A-
75-79 B+
70-74 B
65-69 B-
60-64 C+
55-59 C
50-54 C-
45-49 D+
40-44 D
0-39 F
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