Some research issues in distributed
systems
1p, PhD-level Course
Philippas Tsigas
Undergraduate students interested in following this course are also
welcome.
Introduction and Course Description
Sequential and parallel algorithms can usually be seen as recipes
that transform inputs that are given to them at the beginning into desired
outputs that are produced at the end. Distributed Algorithms run in processes
of systems where the processing elements are physically apart and are there
rather to guarantee desired behavior of the system in the presence
of faults.
People's concern when thinking of a distributed algorithm is not only
what each component should do in order to guarantee the desired behavior
of the system but also -like in parallel and sequential algorithms- a big
deal of effort goes to issues like:
-
the way that the processes can organize, remember, change and access collections
of data (which data structures to use).
-
how to predict (analyze) the resources that the algorithm requires;
resources such as memory, communication bandwidth, computational time,
time for an operation to finish.
-
how to develop methods (create a design methodology) that another
designer can employ in order to find a solution to another problem.
-
how to prove that although you did not find a solution nobody ever will
find one (Intractability).
This one week course will try to introduce some basic research efforts
that try to address the above issues.
More detailed information is coming soon.
Bibliography
1. Related conference and journal papers.
2. You can also check the Distributed
Algorithms & Systems Home: a page with pointers relevant to
research in distributed algorithms and systems: conference announcements
and calls-for-papers, pointers to institutes, projects, literature, bibliographies,
special pages describing a particular research area, and many more.
Examination
To get a 1 point credit for this course, you have to read and give a half an hour
presentation of a research paper from the course reading list.
Schedule
For schedule info see here.
Last updated: Tue Oct 3 15:14:34 MET DST 2000 (by Philippas
Tsigas)