School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW
CRICOS Provider No. 00098G
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School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW |
CRICOS Provider No. 00098G |
Session 1, 2009
Course Staff Course Information Course Schedule Assessment Resources for Students Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Further Information
| Function | Name | Consultation Time | Email Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecturer (in charge) |
Ihor Kuz | Thursday, 15:00-16:00 | cs9243 |
Along with lectures and the exam, the assignments make up a significant part of the course load.
A distributed system is a computer system consisting of several independent computers, connected by a network, that can work together to perform a task or provide a service.
In this course we aim to provide students with a deeper understanding of distributed systems. In particular we focus on the principles, techniques, and practices relevant to the design and implementation of distributed systems. The course takes a systems-oriented view of distributed systems, concentrating on infrastructure software and providing hands-on experience implementing distributed systems.
Concretely the course has the following objectives:
After completing this course you will be able to:
Students are expected to be highly competent in the use of a systems programming language—preferably C. Students not familiar with C will be expected to learn it on their own. Furthermore, students are expected to be confident in the use of standard POSIX system libraries (including file handling, process management, signal handling, and socket programming). Moreover, students are required to become competent in the concurrent programming language Erlang on their own (a brief introduction is given in the first lecture).
Since networks make up a key part of distributed systems, and since many of the key challenges and solutions presented in the course extend those found in operating systems, a solid background in both networking and operating systems is essential. The course builds on many of the topics covered in the prerequisites.
Only COMP9243 students attend these classes. The students include postgraduates and senior undergraduates.
The learning focus in this course is primarily on lectures and assignments. Relevant research publications and other material that goes deeper into the subjects handled during lectures are also provided, however, these are usually optional. While the assignments provide a portion of the final mark, one of their primary aims is to provide an opportunity to put into practice some of the material presented in the lectures and to get a feel for the complexity of programming distributed systems. To this end, we also provide unmarked exercises that encourage students to further explore the topics presented in the course.
Lectures: Wednesday 6-9pm; Room: Law Building (F8), room 163.
The following is a provisional list of topics covered in the lectures (subject to change):
| Week | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 Mar | No Lecture |
| 1 | 11 Mar | Introduction to Distributed Systems, Introduction to Erlang |
| 2 | 18 Mar | System Architecture, Communication |
| 3 | 25 Mar | Replication & Consistency, Distributed Shared Memory |
| 4 | 1 Apr | Synchronisation & Coordination |
| 5 | 8 Apr | Synchronisation & Coordination |
| 15 Apr | Mid-session Recess | |
| 6 | 22 Apr | Middleware |
| 7 | 29 April | Fault Tolerance |
| 8 | 6 May | Security |
| 9 | 13 May | Naming, Distributed File Systems |
| 10 | 20 May | Parallel Programming, Clusters and Cloud Computing |
| 11 | 27 May | Distributed Systems in Practice (Guest Lectures) |
| 12 | 3 Jun | Review and Other Topics |
| # | Release - Beginning of |
Due - End of | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Week 3 | Mid-session Recess | Distributed Shared Memory
(group assignment) |
| 2 | Week 8 | Week 10 | Router Network
(individual assignment) |
Assignment submissions need to be coded in C and Erlang (as determined by
the assignment specification). All submission will be tested on the
School's vina cluster running under Debian GNU/Linux.
The penalty for late submission of assignments will be 6% (of the worth of the assignment) subtracted from the raw mark per day of being late. In other words, earned marks will be lost. For example, assume an assignment worth 25 marks is marked as 20, but had been submitted two days late. The late penalty will be 3 marks ((0.06 * 25) * 2), resulting in a mark of 17 being awarded. No assignment will be accepted later than one week after the deadline.
A three hour open book written final examination will be conducted.
Supplementary exams will only be awarded in serious cases where the student has submitted a fully documented request for Special Consideration within 3 working days of the exam. In accordance with School policy, supplementary exams will not be awarded as a second chance for poorly performing students. In particular, it is unlikely that a supplementary will be awarded to students who have actually sat the proper exam. Make up your mind whether or not you are sick before attempting the exam! Moreover, a supplementary exam will only be awarded where a student's performance during the semester has been of satisfactory standard. Please refer to the sections under the heading Special Consideration - Illness & Misadventure and CSE Supplementary Assessment Policy in the Yellow Form for further details.
Supplementary exams will be oral. Supplementary final exams will be held either on the day before, or the day after, the written supplementary exams held for other courses.
The final mark will be the weighted average of the exam mark and the total assignment mark, where the exam mark accounts for 65% and the assignment mark accounts for 35% of the final mark . No-one will be allowed a passing grade unless their exam mark was at least 50% of the maximum possible exam mark.
There is no single textbook for this course. Lecture material will be taken from a variety of sources, including recent research publications.
Books covering a significant part of the lecture material are the following:
None of these books covers all the course material.
Reference to research papers will be provided throughout, and it is recommended that you read them. Lecture notes and other information can be found under the course's WWW home page at URL http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9243/. It is recommended that you refer to this page regularly.
Assignments will be marked as individual or team assignments as stated in the specification. Team work is not permitted in individual assignments; cooperation between teams is not permitted in team assignments. Both will be regarded as cheating. Copying of assignment code leads to immediate failure of the course with a result of 0FL. Negative or reduced marks will be imposed in less severe cases (e.g., team work in individual assignments). Cases of repeated cheating (in this or other courses) will be treated as academic misconduct and will result in an application being made to have the offender(s) suspended from the University. Please carefully read the discussion under the heading Originality of Assignment Submissions on the Yellow Form to which you agree to be legally bound when enrolling for this course and/or signing up for the use of the computing facilities of the School.
This is no idle threat. We check for cheating, and we go after cheaters, to protect those who get their marks through honest work. In a previous instance of this course (Session 1, 2001), two out of 36 students failed due to cheating.
Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one's own.* Examples include:
Submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for academic credit elsewhere may also be considered plagiarism.
The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does not amount to plagiarism.
Students are reminded of their Rights and Responsibilities in respect of plagiarism, as set out in the University Undergraduate and Postgraduate Handbooks, and are encouraged to seek advice from academic staff whenever necessary to ensure they avoid plagiarism in all its forms.
The Learning Centre website is the central University online resource for staff and student information on plagiarism and academic honesty. It can be located at: www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism.
The Learning Centre also provides substantial educational written materials, workshops, and tutorials to aid students, for example, in:
Individual assistance is available on request from The Learning Centre.
Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting, and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment items.
* Based on that proposed to the University of Newcastle by the St James Ethics Centre. Used with kind permission from the University of Newcastle
** Adapted with kind permission from the University of Melbourne.
This page is maintained by cs9243@cse.unsw.edu.au Last modified: Wednesday, 25-Feb-2009 16:42:41 EST
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