SE 342

Distributed Computing
Jamal Nasir

What is distributed system?

A system in which components are located at

networked computers, communicate and coordinate
their actions only by passing messages.

Prime motivation

To share resources
Resources can be
Hardware components like disks and printers
Software entities like databases, files, all type of data
objects

Characteristics of distributed systems

Concurrency of components
Lack of a global clock
Independent failures of components

Applications
Finance and commerce

The information society

Creative industries and

entertainment

Healthcare

Applications
Finance and commerce

eCommerce e.g. Amazon and eBay, PayPal, online

banking and trading

The information society

Creative industries and

entertainment

Healthcare

Applications
Finance and commerce

eCommerce e.g. Amazon and eBay, PayPal, online

banking and trading

The information society

Web information and search engines, ebooks, Wikipedia;

social networking: Facebook and MySpace.

Creative industries and

entertainment

Healthcare

Applications
Finance and commerce

eCommerce e.g. Amazon and eBay, PayPal, online

banking and trading

The information society

Web information and search engines, ebooks, Wikipedia;

social networking: Facebook and MySpace.

Creative industries and

entertainment

online gaming, music and film in the home, usergenerated content, e.g. YouTube, Flickr

Healthcare

Applications
Finance and commerce

eCommerce e.g. Amazon and eBay, PayPal, online

banking and trading

The information society

Web information and search engines, ebooks, Wikipedia;

social networking: Facebook and MySpace.

Creative industries and

entertainment

online gaming, music and film in the home, usergenerated content, e.g. YouTube, Flickr

Healthcare

health informatics, on online patient records,

monitoring patients

Applications(2)
Education

Transport and logistics

Science

Environmental management

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Applications(2)
Education

e-learning, virtual learning environments; distance

learning

Transport and logistics

Science

Environmental management

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Applications(2)
Education

e-learning, virtual learning environments; distance

learning

Transport and logistics

GPS in route finding systems, map services: Google

Maps, Google Earth

Science

Environmental management

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Applications(2)
Education

e-learning, virtual learning environments; distance

learning

Transport and logistics

GPS in route finding systems, map services: Google

Maps, Google Earth

Science

The Grid as an enabling technology for collaboration

between scientists

Environmental management

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Applications(2)
Education

e-learning, virtual learning environments; distance

learning

Transport and logistics

GPS in route finding systems, map services: Google

Maps, Google Earth

Science

The Grid as an enabling technology for collaboration

between scientists

Environmental management

sensor technology to monitor earthquakes, floods or

tsunamis

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Trends in distributed systems

Pervasive networking technology

Ubiquitous computing
Increasing demand for multimedia services
View of distributed systems as a utility

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Figure 1.3
A typical portion of the Internet

intranet
ISP

backbone

satellite link
desktop computer:
server:
network link:

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012

Figure 1.4
Portable and handheld devices in a distributed system

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012

Figure 1.5
Cloud computing

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012

1
8

Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity

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Figure 1.3
A typical portion of the Internet

intranet
ISP

backbone

satellite link
desktop computer:
server:
network link:

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012

Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity

- Middleware

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity

- Middleware
A software layer that provides a programming abstraction as
well as masking the heterogeneity of the underlying networks,
hardware, operating systems and programming languages.

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity

- Middleware
A software layer that provides a programming abstraction as
well as masking the heterogeneity of the underlying networks,
hardware, operating systems and programming languages.

- Mobile Code

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity

- Middleware
A software layer that provides a programming abstraction as
well as masking the heterogeneity of the underlying networks,
hardware, operating systems and programming languages.

- Mobile Code
Program code that can be transferred from one computer to
another and run at the destination

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
- The degree to which new resource-sharing services can be
added and be made available for use by a variety of client
programs.

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability

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Figure 1.6
Growth of the Internet (computers and web servers)

Date

Computers
1,776,000

Web servers

Percentage

130

0.008

1993, July
1995, July
1997, July
1999, July
2001, July
2003, July

6,642,000
19,540,000
56,218,000
125,888,197

23,500
1,203,096
6,598,697
31,299,592

0.4
6
12
25

~200,000,000

42,298,371

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2005, July

353,284,187

67,571,581

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Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012

Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
- Controlling the cost of physical resources
- Controlling the performance loss
- Preventing software resources running out
- Avoiding performance bottlenecks

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency
Transparency

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency
Transparency
- The concealment from the user and the application
programmer of the separation of components in a
distributed system.

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Transparencies

Access transparency: enables local and remote

resources to be accessed using identical operations.

Location transparency: enables resources to be

accessed without knowledge of their physical or
network location (for example, which building or IP
address).

Concurrency transparency: enables several processes to

operate concurrently using shared resources without
interference between them.
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Transparencies(2)
Replication

transparency: enables multiple instances of

resources to be used to increase reliability and

performance without knowledge of the replicas by
users or application programmers.
Failure

transparency: enables the concealment of faults.

Mobility

transparency: allows the movement of

resources and clients within a system without affecting
the operation of users or programs.
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Transparencies(3)
Performance

transparency: allows the system to be

reconfigured to improve performance as loads vary.

Scaling

transparency: allows the system and

applications to expand in scale without change to the
system structure or the application algorithms.

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency
Transparency

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Challenges in distributed systems

Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency
Transparency
Quality of service

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