Unit Profile Correction added on 24-04-20
The end of term examination has now been changed to an alternate form of assessment. Please see your Moodie site for details of the assessment.
Overview
Many computer applications and services in use today are distributed systems: they have software running on multiple computers, communicating with each other across a network to achieve a common goal. In this unit you will examine the benefits and challenges of distributed systems versus centralised systems, and you will learn architectural design, inter-process communication and networking. You will explore the significant distributed system characteristics of scalability, heterogeneity, security and failure handling. You will implement these algorithms and techniques through laboratory activities and development of secure, reliable, client/server software applications that can perform concurrent operations across multiple computers in the Internet.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: COIT11134
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2020
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit Evaluation Report
An improvement in learning resources is required.
Additional practice examples will be provided to aid in learning.
- Compare the benefits and challenges of distributed systems versus centralised systems
- Design software components that can run in parallel and on multiple networked computers
- Apply various distributed system algorithms and techniques to create practical distributed applications
- Analyse the role of operating system services and file systems in creating distributed applications
- Evaluate techniques for creating secure, reliable and efficient distributed systems.
Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles.
ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:
- Systems Design (DESN)
- Systems Integration (SINT)
- Program ming/Software Development ( PROG),
- Database/Repository Design (DBDS)
- Testing (TEST)
- Network support (NTAS)
- Release and Deployment (RELM)
- Application Support (ASUP)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 25% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 35% | |||||
| 3 - Examination - 40% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 25% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 35% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Examination - 40% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
Distributed Systems Concepts and Design
Edition: 5th (2012)
Authors: George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Tim Kindberg and Gordon Blair
Addison-Wesley
Boston Boston , MA , USA
ISBN: 9780132143011
Binding: Other
Additional Textbook Information
Copies can be purchased at the CQUni Bookshop here: http://bookshop.cqu.edu.au (search on the Unit code)
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Java SE 11
- NetBeans IDE 11
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
p.gangavalli@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
An Introduction to Distributed Systems
Chapter
1 & 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Interprocess Communication
Chapter
4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Distributed Objects and Remote Invocation
Chapter
5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Process and Thread Management – Operating System Support
Chapter
7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Security in Distributed Systems
Chapter
11
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Vacation
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Web Services
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Name Services
Chapter
Chapter 13
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Coordination and Agreement
Chapter
15
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Transactions and Concurrent Control
Chapter
16
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Distributed Transactions
Chapter
17
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Replication and Fault Tolerance
Chapter
18
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
Chapter
19
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Unit Coordinator
Mr Partha Gangavalli
School of Engineering and Technology
Central Queensland University
Sydney
Email: p.gangavalli@cqu.edu.au
1 Written Assessment
Your task for this assignment is to design, implement, test and document a client/server system which allows concurrent access to multiple clients. The purpose of this assignment is to assess your competency in Java TCP/UDP networking, multi-threading, and object serialization/de-serialization. This assignment task is to assess your skills in practicing the theoretical concepts learnt in Weeks 1 - 4. Further details are available on the unit website in the Assignment 1 Specification document.
Week 6 Friday (24 Apr 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Assignment-1 Due
Week 8 Friday (8 May 2020)
Assignment-1 Results Release
-
Appropriate analysis and design of a software application using networking and client-server communication for
the given problem - Implementation of the application using networking, multi-threading, and object serialization
- Incorporation of concurrent multi-user access to the software application
- Use of good programming techniques/practices
- Rigorous testing of software application.
- Compare the benefits and challenges of distributed systems versus centralised systems
- Design software components that can run in parallel and on multiple networked computers
- Apply various distributed system algorithms and techniques to create practical distributed applications
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
2 Written Assessment
Your task for this assignment is to design, implement, test and document a secure client/server system which allows concurrent access to multiple clients. This assignment task is to assess your skills in practicing the theoretical concepts learnt in Weeks 4 - 9. Further details are available on the unit website in the Assignment 2 Specification document.
Week 11 Friday (29 May 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week Thursday (11 June 2020)
Assignment-2 Results Release
-
Appropriate analysis and design of a software application using networking and client-server communication for
the given problem - Implementation of the application using networking, multi-threading, and security
-
Incorporation of concurrent multi-user access to the software application
- Use of good programming techniques/practices
- Rigorous testing of software application.
- Design software components that can run in parallel and on multiple networked computers
- Apply various distributed system algorithms and techniques to create practical distributed applications
- Analyse the role of operating system services and file systems in creating distributed applications
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
Examination
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
