1. CSC5340 Advanced Topics in Distributed Software Systems
Dr. Michael R. Lyu
Computer Science & Engineering Department
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

2. How to reach me? Engineering Building, Room 927 2609 8429

3. Organization of the Course
Lectures: T (ELB LT2)
Tutorial: T (SC L3)
Th (MMW 703)
Projects
Homework
Late Midterm, Final

4. Nature of the Course
This is a practical lecture with hands-on experience!
Involves C++/Java (your choice) Programming.
Application
Objects
CORBAfacilities
Object Request Broker
CORBAservices

5. What You Will Learn
Problems that occur during construction of distributed systems.
Principles and techniques to solve them.
Components of an infrastructure for distributed systems (OMG/CORBA).
Practical experience with an OMG/CORBA implementation.

6. Other Related Courses Software Engineering (CSC3100)
Networking (CSC4430)
Database (CSC3170)
Operating Systems (CSC3150)
Security (CSC5470)

7. Required Textbook
Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, and Tim Kindberg, Addison-Wesley, 3rd edition, 2001

8. Suggested References
Wolfgang Emmerich: Engineering Distributed Objects. Wiley
Tanenbaum & van Steen: Distributed Systems. Prentice-Hall
Sloman and Kramer: Distributed Systems and Computer Networks. Prentice Hall
Baker: CORBA Distributed Objects. Addison-Wesley
Mowbray and Zahavi: The Essential CORBA. Wiley

9. Coursework Projects (40%) Homework (5%)
1 median-size project (10%), 1 larger project (30%).
Done in teams (3-4 per team). No joint team work.
The large project will use Iona Orbix or Visigenic systems.
Involves C, C++ or Java Programming.
Homework (5%)
2 assignments when there is no project work due.
Discussions allowed but no plagiarism.
Late Mid-Term Exam (15%) – November 12, 2002
Final Exam (40%)

10. Course Outline 1 Distributed Systems Characteristics and Design Issues
2 Distributed Software Engineering by CORBA
3 Communication
4 RPCs vs. CORBA
5 CORBA/DCOM/RMI
6 Building Distributed Systems with CORBA
7 CORBA Generosity and Interoperability
8 Security
9 Naming and Trading
10 Concurrent Processes and Threads
11 Transactions
12 Reliability