成人大片

In Distributed Systems this course, you will learn a range of fundamental and applied techniques in distributed systems. The learning objectives for Distributed Systems are:

1. To develop and apply knowledge of distributed systems techniques and methodologies.
2. To gain experience in the design and development of distributed systems and distributed systems applications.
3. To gain experience in the application of fundamental Computer Science methods and algorithms in the development of distributed systems and distributed systems applications.
4. To gain experience in the design and testing of a large software system, and to be able to communicate that design to others.

Required readings will be provided on the course website. There is no required textbook for this course.

Two reference books are provided for this course:

1 Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design G. Coulouris, Jean Dollimore and Tim Kindberg Addison Wesley, 4th Edition

2 Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms A.S. Tanenbaum and M. Van Steen Pearson, 2nd Edition

The Distributed Systems course uses a Moodle forum to provide online resources to students: http://forums.cs.adelaide.edu.au/

The course aims to introduce students to a wide range of distributed systems concepts and techniques. The course will be taught using the following class activities:
•2 three-day intensives
• 5 tutorials throughout the intensives.
• 3 collaborative classes throughout the semester. Students are expected to attend all classes.

In addition, students are expected to spend significant time working on their assignments both within and outside of the laboratory. During the course, students will undertake a series of assignments designed to complement the material discussed in lectures and tutorials. These assignments involve the design and development of various fundamental aspects of distributed systems, and will enable students to test their knowledge of the concepts and theory discussed in class. As part of the assignment work, you will be expected to document the design and testing of your software. This will provide you with the opportunity for reflection and review.

This information is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements. Distributed Systems is a 3 unit course. The expectation is that students will devote at least 156 hours to a 3 unit course, including contact hours.

Topics include: remote operations, local and distributed synchronizations, failures and fault tolerant protocols, distributed file systems, distributed commits, PAXOS, consistency models.

The assessment for this course consists of two components with the following weightings:
• Exam – 70%
• Assignment work – 24%
• Collaborative Group Activities – 6%

Information about the specific assignment weighting is available on the Moodle forum.

Each collaborative activity is worth 2% of the final mark.
The schedule of the assignments will be announced on the Moodle forum.

The assignments are weighted as follows, with accompanying information.
Assignment 1: Summative, 8%, due,  learning objective 2,3,4.
Assignment 2: Summative, 10%, learning learning objective 2,3,4.
Assignment 3: Summative, 6%,  learning objective 2,3,4.

All programming assignments will be submitted via the school's Web Submission gateway, available from the school web page (http://www.cs.adelaide.edu.au). Other materials may be submitted to the school's Moodle forums (http://forums.cs.adelaide.edu.au).

Both electronic systems provide cover sheets for submitted work. No physical submissions of work will be accepted unless specifically requested by the lecturer - all other submissions will be electronic. Students are strongly advised to keep copies of any electronic work that they submit, if they are entering text into fields without a receipted copy.

The School of Computer Science observes a strict lateness policy. Your mark is capped by an additional 25% for each day late. 1 day late and your maximum mark can now only be 75%. 2 days late, 50%, 3 days late, 75%. Any submission beyond this point attracts no marks. Days are calculated from the time of hand-in, hence, if a hand-in is due at midnight, 12:01am is 1 day late.

Extensions may be requested in advance for medical or compassionate reasons but (1) all requests must be accompanied by documentation, (2) extensions awarded will be proportional to any days missed due to illness (sick for 1 day WITH a medical certificate will only get you a 1 day extension), (3) no extensions will be granted on the final day unless the issue is both severe and unforeseen, and (4) extensions are never granted because you have been busy, have managed your time poorly or are over-committed. Extensions are only available for issues that are beyond your control or where you have carefully planned your time where you have a known conflict and, well enough in advance, discussed the matter and arranged an extension.

Programming marks will be available immediately, once the prac markers have marked your work and you should receive immediate feedback. You will also receive ongoing feedback on other matters throughout the course. Tutorial questions will be discussed in the tutorial. On-line and in-lecture assignment marks will be available within 10 days of the activity, shorter when possible. Any written assignments will be marked and returned within a 2 week period.

Where your work is of a standard that would put you at risk of hitting the minimum performance criterion, we will attempt to identify you as an at-risk student early on and, if you have been putting in sufficient effort elsewhere, you may be given a chance to resubmit some work that will have the possibility of removing the MP block, although it will not improve your mark.

Students who demonstrate a late hand-in pattern, or have intermittent hand-in completions, will be contacted and encouraged to change their planning patterns to achieve better results. Obviously, students may choose to continue with their current patterns, with no other penalty than continuing the behaviour that has led to them achieving low marks.

Students who achieve a final mark in the range of 45-49 will be automatically granted academic supplementary examinations. Students who achieve a final mark of 40-44 may be offered academic supplementary examinations, academic supplementary coursework or a combination of these but the offer is at the discretion of the academic staff. Students who have done very well in the exam but have completed little to no coursework will not be given an opportunity for redemption.