Class Information

Lecture Schedule and Notes

Schedule for Assignments and Exams

Calendar of Important Dates

Canvas Coursepage

Useful Resources

Distributed Systems

CSCI 5105   -   Spring 2021

Resources to Prepare for Online Learning

Please see this website for a self-paced online course Learning Online 101 for about 2-4 hours of training materials for you to get acquainted with the resources (such as Canvas, Zoom, Kaltura).

Course Format

All lectures will be through synchronous online remote mode using Zoom. Video recordings of all lectures would be posted on the Canvas course-page. Occasionally some lectures would be posted as prerecorded videos in case of any technical difficulties during the online synchronous presentations at the scheduled class times.

Canvas Coursepage

The Canvas coursepage for this course will be our primary channel for all communication and coordination of course activities and resources.  The Canvas page will have lecture videos, lecture notes (pdf), quizzes, assignments, exams, work submission, grades and feedback, calendar for activities and scheduling of office hour meetings. 

Course Objectives

Students will learn foundations and principles of distributed systems. Through several programming project, the students will  gain experience in designing and building distributed software systems. The topics to be covered in this course include:

·         General concepts in distributed system designs: network communication protocols, client-server model, peer-to-peer systems, overlay networks.

·         Inter-process communication and coordination models - request-reply model, remote procedure call. TCP, Sun RPC and Java RMI programming models.

·         Process synchronization: physical clock synchronization using NTP, notion of logical clocks, event ordering, causality of events, and vector clocks.

·         Mutual exclusion protocols in distributed systems.

·         Fault tolerance using data/process replication.  Group communication and broadcast models, reliable broadcast protocols. Consensus and agreement protocols. Byzantine failure model.

·         State Machine Model for replication management.

·         Data consistency models.

·         Scaling techniques – replication, partitioning, and hierarchical architectures. DNS architecture. CAP theorem.

·         Load balancing in distributed systems, examples of techniques in web servers. Process migration in distributed systems.

·         Peer-to-peer systems: Gnutella, Napster, and Chord architecture.

·         Distributed file systems - NFS and Andrew file system architectures.

·         Security and protection – distributed authentication protocols. Kerberos design.  

Prerequisites

This course requires that students have basic understanding of operating system concepts and concurrent systems, topics covered in CSci 5103 and CSci 4061. Understanding of basic concepts from computer networks is helpful but not required. Students are expected to have good understanding and proficiency in programming the Java language for working on the programming assignments.
 

Lecture:

Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00 -- 5:15 pm through Zoom

Name:

Anand Tripathi

email:

tripathi  umn   edu

Phone:

Office Hours:

Mondays and Wednesdays: 2:00 am -- 3:00 pm using Zoom

Name:

 Yuanli Wang

email:

wang8662  umn  edu

Office Hours:

Tuesdays and Fridays  3:00– 4:00 pm through Zoom

Office:

Zoom meeting

Phone:

Title:

Distributed Systems (Third Edition)

ISBN: 978-15-430573-8-6 (printed version)

ISBN: 978-90-815406-2-9 (digital version)

Author:

Maarten Van Steen and Andrew Tanenbaum

Publisher:

Published by Maarten van Steen

This text is:

Required

Additional Papers and Resources

I will post several technical papers to supplement the discussions of syllabus topics. The references page lists numerous online resources which you may find useful.  

Grading Policy

This course will have 8 assignments, one midterm exam and one final exams. Three assignments will involve significant programming project work. These programming assignments can be done in a group of up to two students.

Assignments and exams are weighted as shown below. See the Assignments & Exams page for specific weights for programming assignments.

75 % :    Eight Assignments which will include three programming projects using Java RMI and TCP.
12.5 % : Midterm
12.5 % : Final Exam

Your final grade will be determined based on the scale shown below.

Score Range  Grade / Individual 
[95 --100]   A
[90 -- 95)    A-
[85 -- 90)    B+
[80 -- 85)    B
[75 -- 80)    B-
[70 -- 75)    C+
[65 -- 70)    C
[60 -- 65)    C-
[55 -- 60)    D+
[50 -- 55)    D
[00 -- 50)    F

Policies for Academic Integrity and Community Standards:

You must be fully cognizant of the following policies regarding academic integrity, community standards and scholastic dishonesty. Please see the website of the Office for Community Standards.

Please familiarize yourself with the Online Learning Expectations outlined by the Office for Community Standard. These guidelines are stated below:

§ Students have the right to express themselves and participate freely in an online class.

§ Students are expected to treat each other, instructor(s), and all other staff members with courtesy and respect.

§ Only individuals registered and enrolled in a particular course may access the course materials, lectures, group discussions, etc. in the online environment, unless otherwise approved by the instructor. Links to course materials, including video meetings, should not be shared with individuals who are not enrolled in the course unless otherwise approved by the instructor.

§ Offensive or inappropriate language or images should not be used in any form of communication e.g., emails, discussion postings, group projects, and submitted assignments. This includes background images and settings in Zoom and other video platforms.

§ The discussion area of the course is reserved for postings related to course work only. Postings of a personal or non-academic nature are not permitted and may be removed by the instructor should they appear.

§ Grades and personal issues should be handled by private email or chat to the instructor.

§ Emails or chats to the instructor that are considered offensive or inappropriate will be sent back to the writer with a request to rewrite and resubmit.

§ If students receive inappropriate emails or chats from others in the class, they should notify the instructor immediately.

All students are expected to abide by the "Student Conduct Code". See Board of Regents Student Conduct Code 
Please be cognizant of the following documents related to policies on scholastic dishonesty.

All cases will be reported to the Office for Community Standards.
Please see the following important documents related to academic integrity and scholastic dishonesty:

1. Departmental Academic Conduct Policy for Students in Computer Science classes
2. Frequently Asked Questions on Academic Conduct
3. Office for Student Coduct and  Academic Integrity FAQ
4. Board of Regents Student Conduct Code  Students are expected to abide by the "Student Conduct Code"

You are expected to do your own academic work and cite sources as necessary. Failing to do so is scholastic dishonesty. Scholastic dishonesty means plagiarizing; cheating on assignments or examinations; engaging in unauthorized collaboration on academic work; taking, acquiring, or using test materials without faculty permission; submitting false or incomplete records of academic achievement; acting alone or in cooperation with another to falsify records or to obtain dishonestly grades, honors, awards, or professional endorsement; altering, forging, or misusing a University academic record; or fabricating or falsifying data, research procedures, or data analysis. (Student Conduct Code: http://regents.umn.edu/sites/default/files/policies/Student_Conduct_Code.pdf) If it is determined that a student has cheated, he or she may be given an "F" or an "N" for the course, and may face additional sanctions from the University. .

Cheating and other forms of scholastic dishonesty will not be tolerated.  Such activities include:

·         Consulting and seeking help from others (students or non-students) on assignments and exams when asked to do an assignment problem individually.

·         Consulting and seeking help from others not in your group (students or non-students) on assignments when asked to do an assignment problem in a designated group.

·         Cheating on exams. Consulting others or using any material which is not permitted on the exam.

·         Copying material from some source, such as the Internet or books, and presenting it as you own solution or design when asked to solve a problem yourself.

·         Attempt to change an already graded assignment and asking for re-grading of that material.

·         Attempts to fabricate the submission date/time of a late assignment to make it appear like an on-time submission.

·         Stealing some other student's solution or program.

·         Submitting solutions prepared by the TAs and the instructors during the prior years of the course offering.

·         Obtaining information through the Internet and submitting it as your own work on an assignment.

·         Purchasing a solution for your assignment from someone.

·         All group programming assignments must be done collaboratively, and each group member must be fully involved in all aspects of designing and programming.

·         You are responsible for protecting your assignment files, program code, and data on your personal computer or account.

·         Giving access to your personal computer or account to another student thereby enabling the student to access to your assignment and work.

·         Helping or abetting another student in cheating or scholastic misconduct.

You must be fully cognizant of the CSE Lab Acceptable Use Policy.  All CSE public labs users should be familiar with the full content of this document. However, in the interests of brevity, here are the basic ideas:

• Do not use your account for illegal, unethical, or unauthorized purposes.
• Protect your data with the correct file permissions, and respect others' privacy.
• Do not share your account and passwords with anybody
• Contact the system administrators if you have questions, comments, or concerns about CSE's public computing labs.
• Only use resources that have been deliberately allocated to you, i.e., do not try to circumvent security or administrative measures on the systems.
• Become familiar with the system and avail yourself of all the resources for which you have authorization.

Any case of cheating or scholastic misconduct will result in an “F” or “N” GRADE . Additionally, the matter would be forwarded to the Office for Community Standards.

Makeup Work and Legitimate Absences

Students will not be penalized for absence during the semester due to unavoidable or legitimate circumstances. Such circumstances include verified illness, participation in intercollegiate athletic events, subpoenas, jury duty, military service, bereavement, and religious observances. Such circumstances do not include voting in local, state, or national elections..

Appropriate Use of Classnotes and Course Materials

Taking notes is a means of recording information but more importantly of personally absorbing and integrating the educational experience. However, broadly disseminating class notes beyond the classroom community or accepting compensation for taking and distributing classroom notes undermines instructor interests in their intellectual work product while not substantially furthering instructor and student interests in effective learning. Such actions violate shared norms and standards of the academic community.

Disability Arrangements

The University of Minnesota is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for all students. Disability Services (DS) is the campus office that collaborates with students who have disabilities to provide and/or arrange reasonable accommodations.

If you have, or think you may have, a disability (e.g., mental health, attentional, learning, chronic health, sensory, or physical), please contact DS at 612-626-1333 to arrange a confidential discussion regarding equitable access and reasonable accommodations.

If you are registered with DS and have a current letter requesting reasonable accommodations, please contact your instructor as early in the semester as possible to discuss how the accommodations will be applied in the course.

For more information, please see the DS website, https://diversity.umn.edu/disability/.

Sexual Harassment

"Sexual harassment" means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and/or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or academic environment in any University activity or program. Such behavior is not acceptable in the University setting. For additional information, please consult Board of Regents Policy:

Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, Stalking and Relationship Violence.  

Mental Health and Stress Management

As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance and may reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. University of Minnesota services are available to assist you. You can learn more about the broad range of confidential mental health services available on campus via the Student Mental Health Website: http://www.mentalhealth.umn.edu.

Academic Freedom and Responsibility

Academic freedom is a cornerstone of the University. Within the scope and content of the course as defined by the instructor, it includes the freedom to discuss relevant matters in the classroom. Along with this freedom comes responsibility. Students are encouraged to develop the capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and independent search for truth. Students are free to take reasoned exception to the views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.*

Reports of concerns about academic freedom are taken seriously, and there are individuals and offices available for help. Contact the instructor, the Department Chair, your adviser, the associate dean of the college, or the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the Office of the Provost. [Customize with names and contact information as appropriate for the course/college/campus.]

* Language adapted from the American Association of University Professors "Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students".