• Concurrency: Race conditions lead to critical sections on which threads must be synchronized in order to obtain mutual exclusion. The establishment of mutual exclusion may cause deadlock and starvation. Semaphores and monitors are techniques to obtain mutual exclusion.


• Distribution: Communication over the network leads to dropped and reordered packets which requires robust request/reply and multicast protocols. Programs need to be able to look up services in the system through name services, and services has to be available, scalable, and fault tolerant through techniques such as replication and transactions. Since programs communicate over a potentially faulty network, it is difficult for them to synchronize on time, leaders, and data consistency. Protocols for time synchronization and logical time, consensus, and data distribution address such issues.


• Mobility: Mobile devices frequently disconnect and reconnect to the network, creating a dynamic network topology. In dynamic network topologies components needs to be able to discover available services through discovery protocols, and be able to operate without centralised control using peer-to-peer overlay networks. Artifacts of such volatile networks can be studied using /modeling tools/ for analysis and simulation. .

This is a 7,5ECTS course which requires you to spend 10 hours every week on reading, participating in class work and solving exercises. Expect to spend more time if you do not entirely fulfill the prerequisites.

During weekly classes we will discuss the theoretical aspects and practical implications assuming that you have already read the literature for that class - that is, you must read the literature before attending.
Weekly exercises will allow you to work with the topics on your own with the help of a teaching assistant.


Mandatory assignments:

A sequence of mandatory assignments provide practical experience where students in groups construct a simple game which eventually will demonstrate aspects of concurrency, distribution, and mobility and how to solve such problems in practice. Students are required to submit brief reports on this work, and to participate actively in defending and opposing reports, before they can sign up for the exams. This implies that you must be present on the day of the report presentations (see the course web pages for the exact date).


Information om studiestruktur / Information about study structure
Dette kursus er en del af SDT-specialiseringen Mobile og distribuerede systemer, som du kan finde beskrevet her:
SDT studiestruktur
For at blive cand.it. i SDT skal du bestå SDT's obligatoriske moduler, og gennemføre en 22,5 ECTS specialisering samt to 7,5 ECTS valgfag.

This course is part of the SDT specialization Mobile and Distributed Systems - find it described here:
SDT study structure
In order to graduate as a MSc in SDT, you need to pass the SDT mandatory modules, and also take a 22,5 ECTS specialization and two 7,5 ECTS electives.
 

Mandatory assignments must be passed in order to be eligible for the exam.  

• Compendium published by the ITU Bookshop.


• George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Tim Kindberg: Distributed Systems:
  Concepts and Design, 4th edition.
  Addison Wesley/Pearson Education, June 2005. ISBN: 978 0321263544


• Research articles as indicated during the course