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COIT13229 - Applied Distributed Systems

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2020

Term 1 - 2020 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Townsville
Term 1 - 2021 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Townsville
Term 1 - 2022 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Townsville
Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Cairns
Melbourne
Online
Rockhampton
Sydney
Townsville

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 25%
2. Written Assessment 35%
3. Examination 40%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 30.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 22.45% response rate.

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.

Source: Unit Coordinator reflection and teaching team feedback
Feedback
A good proportion of students lacked the required programming skills expected to be achieved from pre-requisite units.
Recommendation
Students should be reminded of the required programming skills and the necessity to revise relevant materials from pre-requisite units, especially if they have a large time gap between completing pre-requisite units and enrolling in this unit.
Action Taken
Students have been reminded of the required programming skills and the necessity to revise relevant materials from pre-requisite units.
Source: Unit Coordinator reflection and teaching team feedback
Feedback
The technology-related contents of this unit including the textbook are outdated and don't follow the current industry technology trends.
Recommendation
Replace the current textbook and introduce the implementation of theoretical concepts such as "consensus systems", "secure interprocess communications", and "load-balancing" techniques.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Some contents are difficult to understand and there aren't enough resources to explain the content.
Recommendation
Revise unit materials and provide more real-life examples to help students understand the applicability of contents in real-life situations.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Compare the benefits and challenges of distributed systems versus centralised systems
  2. Design software components that can run in parallel and on multiple networked computers
  3. Apply various distributed system algorithms and techniques to create practical distributed applications
  4. Analyse the role of operating system services and file systems in creating distributed applications
  5. 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
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Examination
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication
2 - Problem Solving
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
6 - Information Technology Competence
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Examination