1. INF5040 (Open Distributed Systems)
Exercises Meetings
INF5040 (Open Distributed Systems)
Lucas Provensi
Swati Sharma
Department of Informatics
University of Oslo
September 4, 2014

2. Initial Meeting Plan Date Topic 04.09.14
Overview and theoretical exercises
Theoretical exercises
First programming assignment (introduction and specification)
TAs will be available for helping you with the 1st assignment
No meeting
Theoretical exercises and submission of 1st assignment
Second programming assignment (introduction and specification)
TAs will be available for helping you with the 2nd assignment
Third programming assignment (introduction and specification) and submission of 2nd assignment
TAs will be available for helping you with the 3rd assignment
Theoretical exercises and submission of the 3rd assignment
INF Group Meetings

3. Exercises Theoretical exercises Programming assignments
Based on the lectures and taken form the text books;
Group of students;
Preparation time + discussion.
Programming assignments
Tutorial lectures;
Reserved days for assisting students;
All assignments are mandatory!
Topics covered during meeting may be part of final exam!
INF Group Meetings

4. Regarding all assignments
Groups of 2 to 3 students
All assignments must be approved to be eligible to take the final exam
For those who took this subject last fall:
If you were eligible to take the exam then, i.e., you got the programming assignments approved, you do NOT have to do them again this semester.
Preferences regarding group composition (if any) should be sent to:
To: and
Deliveries:
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5. Assignment 1
Development of a simple object-based distributed application
Will be described
Related to the topic discussed on the Object-based Distributed Systems lecture ( )
Technologies and Tools: Java
CORBA and RMI APIs.
Preliminary Deadline:
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6. Assignment 2
Development of a simple application based on group communication
Will be described
Related to the topic discussed on the Replication in Distributed Systems lecture ( )
Technologies and Tools: Spread Toolkit
Java API
Preliminary Deadline:
INF Group Meetings

7. Assignment 3 Development of a simple peer-to-peer protocol
Will be described
Related to the topic discussed on the Peer-to-peer Systems lecture ( )
Technologies and Tools: PeerSim Simulator
Preliminary Deadline:
INF Group Meetings

8. Previous Lectures Introduction to Distributed Systems
Coulouris ch. 1 and TvS ch. 1
Distributed systems: components located in a network that communicates and coordinates their actions exclusively by sending messages.
Consequences of distributed systems
Distribution transparency
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9. Exercises
We defined a DS as one in which hardware and software components located at networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions only by passing messages. What are the consequences of defining a DS in this manner? (Coulouris ch. 1 ex. 1.1)
Explain what is meant by (distribution) transparency, and give examples of different types of transparency. (Tanenbaum ch. 1 ex. 4)
Why is not always a good idea to aim at implementing the highest degree of transparency possible? (Tanenbaum ch. 1 ex. 6)
Describe precisely what is meant by scalable system. (Tanenbaum ch. 1 ex. 8)
Consider the implementation strategies for massively multiplayer online games. In particular, what advantages do you see in adopting a single server approach for representing the state of the game? What problems can you identify and how might they be resolved? (Coulouris ch. 1 ex. 1.3)
The INFO service manages a potentially very large set of resources, each of which can be accessed by users throughout the Internet by means of a key (a string name). Discuss an approach to the design of the names of the resources that achieves the minimum loss of performance as the number or resources in the service increases. Suggest how the service can be implemented so as to avoid performance bottlenecks when the number of users becomes very large. (Coulouris ch. 1 ex. 1.10)
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10. Previous Lectures System Models for Distributed Systems
Coulouris ch. 2
Physical models: capture the hardware composition of a system in terms of computers and other devices and their interconnecting network;
Architecture models: defines the components of the system, the way they interact, and the way they are deployed in a network of computers
Fundamental models: formal description of the properties that are common to all architecture models
interaction models and failure models
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11. Exercises
How is caching useful in placement strategies? What are its disadvantages? (Coulouris ch. 2 ex. 2.7)
What are the two variants of the interaction model in distributed systems? On what point do they differ? (Coulouris ch. 2 ex. 2.13)
Consider two communication services for use in asynchronous distributed systems. In service A, messages may be lost, duplicated or delayed and checksums apply only to headers. In service B, messages may be lost, delayed or delivered too fast for the recipient to handle them, but those that are delivered arrive with the correct contents. Describe the classes of failure exhibited by each service. Classify their failures according to their effects on the properties of validity and integrity. Can service B be described as a reliable communication service? (Coulouris ch. 2 ex. 2.14)
Classes of failure: omission(fail-stop, crash, channel), arbitrary (byzantine), timing(clock, performance)
Validity: Any message in the outgoing message buffer is eventually delivered to the incoming message buffer
Integrity: The message received is identical to the one sent, and no messages are delivered twice.
INF Group Meetings