ICS 2403 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
Distributed Systems
Characterization and Design
PROF. CHERUIYOT W.K, PHD,
I/C DEPARTMENT
TTU.
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OUTLINE
1. What is a Distributed System
2. Examples of Distributed Systems
3. Common Characteristics
4. Basic Design Issues
5. Summary
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1. DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM TYPES
Fully
Control Distributed
ta
Da
Autonomous
fully cooperative
Local data,
Autonomous local directory
transaction based Not fully replicated
master directory
Master-slave Fully replicated
Homog. Homog.
special general Processors
purpose purpose
Heterog. Heterog.
special general 3
purpose purpose
1. WHAT IS A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM?
Definition: A distributed system is one in which
components located at networked computers
communicate and coordinate their actions only by
passing messages. This definition leads to the
following characteristics of distributed systems:
Concurrency of components
Lack of a global ‘clock’
Independent failures of components
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1.1 CENTRALIZED SYSTEM
CHARACTERISTICS
One component with non-autonomous parts
Component shared by users all the time
All resources accessible
Software runs in a single process
Single point of control
Single point of failure
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1.2 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Multiple autonomous components
Components are not shared by all users
Resources may not be accessible
Software runs in concurrent processes on different
processors
Multiple points of control
Multiple points of failure
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2. EXAMPLES OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
Local Area Network and Intranet
Database Management System
Automatic Teller Machine Network
Internet/World-Wide Web
Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
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2.1 LOCAL AREA NETWORK
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2.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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2.3 AUTOMATIC TELLER MACHINE
NETWORK
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2.4 INTERNET
intranet
ISP
backbone
satellite link
desktop computer:
server:
network link:
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2.4.1 WORLD-WIDE-WEB
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2.4.2 WEB SERVERS AND WEB
BROWSERS
http://www.google.comlsearch?q=lyu
www.google.com
Browsers
Web servers
www.uu.se Internet
http://www.uu.se/
www.w3c.org
File system of http://www.w3c.org/Protocols/Activity.html
www.w3c.org Protocols
Activity.html
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2.5 MOBILE AND UBIQUITOUS
COMPUTING
Internet
Host intranet GSM/GPRS
Wireless LAN gateway Home intranet
Mobile
phone
Printer Laptop
Camera Host site
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3. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS
What are we trying to achieve when we construct a
distributed system?
Certain common characteristics can be used to assess
distributed systems
Heterogeneity
Openness
Security
Scalability
Failure Handling
Concurrency
Transparency
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3.1 HETEROGENEITY
Variety and differences in
Networks
Computer hardware
Operating systems
Programming languages
Implementations by different developers
Middleware as software layers to provide a programming
abstraction as well as masking the heterogeneity of the
underlying networks, hardware, OS, and programming
languages (e.g., CORBA).
Mobile Code to refer to code that can be sent from one
computer to another and run at the destination (e.g., Java
applets and Java virtual machine).
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3.2 OPENNESS
Openness is concerned with extensions and
improvements of distributed systems.
Detailed interfaces of components need to be
published.
New components have to be integrated with
existing components.
Differences in data representation of interface
types on different processors (of different
vendors) have to be resolved.
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3.3 SECURITY
In a distributed system, clients send requests to
access data managed by servers, resources in
the networks:
Doctors requesting records from hospitals
Users purchase products through electronic commerce
Security is required for:
Concealing the contents of messages: security and
privacy
Identifying a remote user or other agent correctly
(authentication)
New challenges:
Denial of service attack
Security of mobile code
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3.4 SCALABILITY
Adaptation of distributed systems to
accommodate more users
respond faster (this is the hard one)
Usually done by adding more and/or faster
processors.
Components should not need to be changed
when scale of a system increases.
Design components to be scalable!
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3.5 FAILURE HANDLING (FAULT
TOLERANCE)
Hardware, software and networks fail!
Distributed systems must maintain availability
even at low levels of hardware/software/network
reliability.
Fault tolerance is achieved by
recovery
redundancy
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3.6 CONCURRENCY
Components in distributed systems are executed
in concurrent processes.
Components access and update shared resources
(e.g. variables, databases, device drivers).
Integrity of the system may be violated if
concurrent updates are not coordinated.
Lostupdates
Inconsistent analysis
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3.7 TRANSPARENCY
Distributed systems should be perceived by users
and application programmers as a whole rather
than as a collection of cooperating components.
Transparency has different aspects.
These represent various properties that
distributed systems should have.
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4. BASIC DESIGN ISSUES
General software engineering principles
include rigor and formality, separation of
concerns, modularity, abstraction,
anticipation of change, …
Specific issues for distributed systems:
Naming
Communication
Software structure
System architecture
Workload allocation
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Consistency maintenance
4.1 NAMING
A name is resolved when translated into an
interpretable form for resource/object reference.
Communication identifier (IP address + port number)
Name resolution involves several translation steps
Design considerations
Choiceof name space for each resource type
Name service to resolve resource names to comm. id.
Name services include naming context resolution,
hierarchical structure, resource protection
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4.2 COMMUNICATION
Separated components communicate with sending
processes and receiving processes for data transfer
and synchronization.
Message passing: send and receive primitives
synchronous or blocking
asynchronous or non-blocking
Abstractions defined: channels, sockets, ports.
Communication patterns: client-server
communication (e.g., RPC, function shipping) and
group multicast
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4.3 SOFTWARE STRUCTURE
Layers in centralized computer systems:
Applications
Middleware
Operating system
Computer and Network Hardware
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4.3 SOFTWARE STRUCTURE
Layers and dependencies in distributed systems:
Applications
Open
Distributed programming services
support
Open system kernel services
Computer and network hardware
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4.4 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES
Client-Server
Peer-to-Peer
Services provided by multiple servers
Proxy servers and caches
Mobile code and mobile agents
Network computers
Thin clients and mobile devices
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4.4.1 CLIENTS INVOKE INDIVIDUAL
SERVERS
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4.4.2 PEER-TO-PEER SYSTEMS
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4.4.3 A SERVICE BY MULTIPLE SERVERS
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4.4.4 WEB PROXY SERVER
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4.4.5 WEB APPLETS
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4.4.6 THIN CLIENTS AND COMPUTE
SERVERS
Compute server
Network computer or PC
Thin network Application
Client Process
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5. SUMMARY
Definitions of distributed systems and comparisons to
centralized systems.
The characteristics of distributed systems.
The eight forms of transparency.
The basic design issues.
Read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the textbook.
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