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2012/2013  BA-TIDS  Distributed Systems

English Title
Distributed Systems

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Course period Autumn
3. semester
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, BSc
Course coordinator
  • Institut for IT Management
    Rasmus Pedersen - ITM
  • Institut for IT Management
    Ravi Vatrapu - ITM
Main Category of the Course
  • Information Systems
Last updated on 17-09-2012
Learning objectives
At the oral exam, the student must demonstrate insight and understanding of building distributed systems. The project and the subsequent defense, students must demonstrate that they must be able to:
  • describe principles for building distributed systems and to explain individual systems or network building;
  • explain the purpose and content of key communication and application protocols;
  • discuss the problems associated with building distributed systems, such as safety, coordination, and performance and the advantages and disadvantages of different solution methods;
  • use parts of the course examined theories, methods and tools to design, develop and demonstrate a distributed system
  • argue for the choice of solutions in the development of the system;
  • discuss and reflect on the solution.
Prerequisite
• Good experience with Java as aquired on 1,2, and 3rd semester Ha(it). One should for instance be able to write Java applications with several classes using inheritance etc
• Experience with object oriented modeling as such. UML. You should be able to create a class diagram as a minimum
• Basic understanding of network based on IP protocol, such as the Internet
Examination
.
The exam in the subject consists of two parts:
A:
Weight 50%
Type of test Oral with Written Assignment
Marking scale 7-step scale
Second examiner External examiner
Exam period December/January
Aids Please, see the detailed regulations below
Duration Please, see the detailed regulations below
  • The oral exam is based on a written group report (overall assessment). The report must have max. 30 standard pages and be written in groups of approx. 4 students. For students who choose to do the project alone, the project will be reduced with approx. 1/3. This means the maximum is 20 standard pages. Study Board shall lay down precise rules for group formation.
  • The oral examination is an individual test of 15 minutes without preparation. In the exam room may only be brought report and personal notes.

The make up/re-take exam is the same as the ordinary exam.
B:
Weight 50%
Type of test Oral Exam
Marking scale 7-step scale
Second examiner External examiner
Exam period December/January
Aids Please, see the detailed regulations below
Duration Please, see the detailed regulations below

Oral exam in curriculum. Duration: 15 minutes

The make up/re-take exam is the same as the ordinary exam.
Course content

This module introduces the distributed and complex IT systems, technical structure, key issues related to their technical functionality, including the special aspects that exist in mobile and embedded distributed systems.
An example of such a complex system is an e-commerce solution that is built on a Web server and uses a component to handle payment with credit card, and Java standard J2EE libraries.  Another example is the proliferation of small mobile wireless systems that integrate people's everyday life as cell phones and embedded systems.
Through this course, students acquire a basic understanding of networks and distributed applications.The subjects are especially designed to provide insight into Internet structure and in applications that use Internet protocols, in order to the students able to construct distributed applications with both self-developed and reused (possibly modified) components.

The course examines:
  • The use of protocols to establish standards for network protocols, including how to define different forms of communication, includingconnectionless vs.connection-oriented.
  • Principles for building distributed systems, from each computer to the network.
  • Architectures for distributed applications, including client / server architectures, peer-to-peer networks, and various types of distributed applications, such as using distributed objects, remote procedure calls and sockets.
  • Mobile networks, etc.
  • Coordination and security issues related to networking and distributed applications, including security concerns in relation to electronic commerce and the advantages and disadvantages of the main ways to solve them, including firewalls and encryption.
  • The relationship between the Internet's technical architecture and business structure, for example phone companies and providers of Internet-services.
Teaching methods
It uses a technical approach to the profession (eg. analysis of network protocols) and you will typically see carefully selected details of a distributed system, since the students already at 1 year has created a general overview of system architectures.

The emphasis is on the lecture the review of concepts and theories are supported by work on practical tasks in the exercises and the development of a small distributed application in project work.

Use of e-learning
The course uses primarily teaching presence. CBS Learn is used for sharing documents and provide interactivity.

Subject structure
The course is divided into two parts covering distributed systems and protocols. Each of these modules cover theory, applications and exercises.

Teaching is based in the pedagogical principle of demonstrating the bulk of the theory in practice. The principle put into practice of teaching.
Student workload
Participation in teaching 26 hours
Participation in exercises 26 hours
Preparation for exercises and teaching 65 hours
Project 80 hours
Exam preparation and exam 28 hours
Total: 225 hours
Expected literature
George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore and Tim Kindberg: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Edition 4. Addison-Wesley 2005.
 
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Last updated on 17-09-2012