Advanced Distributed Systems
The overall aim of the course is to provide students with an in-depth
appreciation of the range of modern middleware technologies, with
emphasis on recent developments in areas such as mobile and multimedia
computing.
Course Objectives
The course has the following key objectives:
- Tointroduce the fundamental concepts underpinning modern distributedsystems and associated middleware platforms, including distributedobjects and component-based software development.
- Tointroduce the range of middleware platforms and technologies availableboth in the market-place, and also under development in R&D labs.
- To provide an in-depth understanding of CORBA, including the ability to program in CORBA.
- Toenable students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of differenttechnologies, particularly in the face of the emerging challenges suchas mobility, multimedia, and real-time programming.
- Toprovide an introduction to reflective middleware, and it's potential interms of offering more configurable and re-configurable softwaresolutions.
Syllabus
The course has the following key objectives:
- To introduce the fundamental concepts underpinning modern distributed systems and associated middleware platforms, including distributed objects and component-based software development.
- To
introduce the range of middleware platforms and technologies available
both in the market-place, and also under development in R&D labs
- To provide an in-depth understanding of CORBA, including the ability to program in CORBA.
- To
enable students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different
technologies, particularly in the face of the emerging challenges such
as mobility, multimedia, and real-time programming.
- To
provide an introduction to reflective middleware, and it's potential in
terms of offering more configurable and re-configurable software
solutions.
Assessment
Assessment is by coursework only (100%).
The coursework consists of participation in and writing up of active learning sessions, distributed systems programming and also the presentation of a paper in the course mini-conference. The programming work is based on the CORBA distributed systems platform and assumes a familiarity with or willingness to learn the C family of languages.
The coursework consists of participation in and writing up of active learning sessions, distributed systems programming and also the presentation of a paper in the course mini-conference. The programming work is based on the CORBA distributed systems platform and assumes a familiarity with or willingness to learn the C family of languages.
Recommended Reading
- Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, 3rd Edition, Addison Wesley, 1994.
- Henning, Vinoski, Advance CORBA Programming with C++, Addison-Wesley, 1999.
- Emmerich, Engineering Distributed Objects, Wiley, 2000.
- Szyperski, Component Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming, Addison-Wesley, 1998.
- Steinmetz, Nahrstedt, Multimedia: Computing, Communication & Application, Prentice Hall, 1995.
- Blair, Stefani, Open Distributed Processing and Multimedia, Addison-Wesley, 1998.
A list of other papers and web resources will also be provided.
Dates and Details
Lecturers: Prof Geoff Coulson & Dr Francois Taiani.