Distributed and Network Programming

Course name: Distributed and Network Programming
Course number: XYZ
Knowledge area: xxx

Course characteristics

Key concepts of the class

Network programming concepts: Layered architecture, TCP and UDP sockets, multithreaded servers
Distributed systems concepts: system architecture, inter-process communication, remote procedure calls, peer-to-peer systems, coordination, replication, and fault tolerance.

What is the purpose of this course?

Distributed and networked systems have become an integral part of our life, we use various applications such as chatting, online transactions, or cloud storage apps. All these popular applications are supported by an infrastructure (of servers) that is organized based on some concepts of distributed systems. The purpose of this course is to provide the students with the necessary concepts, models, and real-world problem-solving techniques of network programming and distributed systems.

Course Objectives Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

What should a student remember at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to recognize and define

Concepts of network programming
Different distributed system architectures
Various synchronization and coordination techniques
Different consistency models and replication methods
Approaches to achieve fault tolerance and security in distributed systems

What should a student be able to understand at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to describe and explain (with examples)

Difference between different transport protocols, when and why one is preferred over another
Difference between different distributed system architectures (centralized, decentralized, and hybrid)
How a mutual exclusion is achieved between concurrent servers (centralized, distributed, token-ring, and decentralized)
How a new leader is elected in peer-to-peer systems (bully, ring)
How to achieve a consistent replicas across distributed systems (consistency models and protocols, content replication and placement)
Some methods to achieve the fault tolerance in distributed systems

What should a student be able to apply at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to apply

Building a custom application protocols on top of the existing transport protocols
Writing multithreaded server and client apps with sockets
Using RPC for inter-process communication: command execution, file transfer
Building peer-to-peer systems with distributed protocol such as Chord
Building fault-tolerant systems with failure detection and leader election

Course evaluation

Course grade breakdown
Component	Points
Laboratory assignments	55%
Final exam	35%
Attendance	10%

Important: In order to successfully finish the course, the student is required to score at least 50% in final exam.

Grades range

Course grading range
A. Excellent	90-100
B. Good	75-89
C. Satisfactory	60-74
D. Poor	0-59

Resources and reference material

Textbook: Maarten Van Steen, and Andrew S. Tanenbaum. Distributed systems (3rd Edition) Leiden, The Netherlands: Maarten van Steen, 2017. Available online: https://www.distributed-systems.net/
Reference: George F. Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, and Tim Kindberg. Distributed systems: concepts and design (5th Edition) Addision Wesley, 2012. Available online: https://www.cdk5.net/wp/
Reference: Sukumar Ghosh. Distributed systems: an algorithmic approach (2nd Edition) Chapman&Hall /CRC, Author’s own course material, Spring 2015. Available online: http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~ghosh/16615.html

Course Sections

The course is organized in 8 weeks, with every weeks 4 academics hours of lectures and 4 academic hours of tutorials/labs. The main sections of the course and approximate hour distribution between them is as follows:

Course Sections
Section	Section Title	Teaching Hours
1	Introduction to subject, network programming, threading	12
2	distributed system architecture, inter-process communication, and remote procedure calls	24
3	Coordination, consistency, and replication in distributed systems	24
4	Fault tolerance and security in distributed systems	30

Section 1

Section title: Introduction to subject, network programming, threading

Topics covered in this section

General introduction to the course
Computer networks basic
Socket programming
UDP socket programming
TCP socket programming
Multithreaded socket programming

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

	Yes/No
Development of individual parts of software product code	1
Homework and group projects	1
Midterm evaluation	0
Testing (written or computer based)	1
Reports	0
Essays	0
Oral polls	1
Discussions	1

Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

What are the distributed systems?
Give an example of distributed systems.
Why the computer networks are based-on layered architecture?
What are the advantages of layered architecture?
What are the roles of transport protocols?
How the TCP and UDP differ from each other? When one is preferred over the other?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

Given a source .c file including a .h header file, show the results of preprossing in terms of the generated c file.
Write a macro and a function in C for the same purpose and discuss pros and cons of both approaches.
Show how you can write a generic swap function as a macro.
Write the code allocating dynamic memory for a 2 dimensional array and initializing it.
Provide an example of how with pointers it is possible in the called function to alter values of variable located in the calling function.
Using function pointers, write a sorting function having the sorting rule as a parameter of such function.

Test questions for final assessment in this section

Discuss the difference in the compiled code when using function and when using macros instead.
Provide examples of functions that cannot be transformed into macros, also discussing the motivation for such impossibility.
Describe the rules for scope and extent for local variables, static variables (in all cases), and pointers, supplying also code examples of them.
Detail the structure of the address space of a process when using a three dimensional array allocated as a local variable of a function and when such array is allocated dynamically, also describe the types of the variables in use and how the compiler checks them.
Outline the assembly code for a function calling another function passed as a parameter of it.

Administrative details

Faculty: Computer Science and Engineering
Year of instruction: 4th year of BS
Semester of instruction: 2nd semester
No. of Credits: 4 ECTS
Total workload on average: 144 hours overall
Frontal lecture hours: 2 per week
Frontal tutorial hours: 2 per week
Lab hours: 2 per week
Individual lab hours: 0
Frequency: weekly throughout the semester
Grading mode: letters: A, B, C, D

Prerequisites

Introduction to Programming I
Introduction to Programming II
Operating Systems
Networks

Course outline

This course focuses on the programming aspects of computer networks. Students will understand the current trends in communication protocols, socket programming and interprocess communication. Network programming will be covered for what concerns both wired networks and wireless networks.

Expected learning outcomes

Understanding issues in concurrent network applications
Understand issues in implementing client/server systems using distributed programming techniques
Implementing multithreaded client/server applications

Expected acquired core competences

Network programming
Socket programming
Client/Server applications
Peer to peer network programming

Textbook

Reference material

Lecturing and lab slides and material will be provided
Several resources are available online and will be pointed during the course

Required computer resources

Students should have laptops.

BSc: Distributed And Network Programming

Contents