Modern computer systems rely increasingly on distributed computing mechanisms, implemented often as clusters, web services, grids and clouds. Distributed computing systems can provide seamless (or web-like) access to a variety of networked resources, e.g. processing cores, large data stores and information repositories, expensive instruments, high-speed links, sensor networks, and multimedia services for a wide range of applications. This unit provides foundation knowledge and understanding of the basic mechanisms required to implement distributed computing systems, especially clouds, grids, web services and clusters. Topics covered include: Introduction to parallel and distributed computing mechanisms, concurrency and synchronisation, monitors, deadlocks, concurrent program analysis - Deadlock, Safety & Liveness properties, computational and service-oriented grids. LVS and Beowulf Clusters. Gridservices, Webservices, WSDL, HPC Portals, Home Grids, Clouds and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. Distributed applications, and their performance and reliability in relation to processor and network performance constraints.
2 hrs lectures/wk, 2 hr laboratory/wk, 1 hr tutorial/wk
Students will be expected to spend a total of 12 hours per week during semester on this unit as follows:
FIT3010
(FIT2069, FIT2070 and one of FIT3141 or ECE2041) or (FIT1005/FIT2008 and FIT2022)
Carlo Kopp, 63/210
Consultation hours: By appointment / email (part time staff)
TBD
Examination (3 hours): 60%; In-semester assessment: 40%
| Assessment Task | Value | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 | 10% | Friday Week 7 |
| Assignment 2 | 10% | Friday Week 12 |
| Laboratory Work | 10% | Weekly (starting Week 2) |
| Tutorial Work | 10% | Weekly |
| Examination 1 | 60% | To be advised |
Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through SETU, Student Evaluation of Teacher and Unit. The University's student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.
For more information on Monash's educational strategy, and on student evaluations, see:
http://www.monash.edu.au/about/monash-directions/directions.html
http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/quality/student-evaluation-policy.html
Students in the previous offering found this unit to be intellectually stimulating.
If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp
| Week | Activities | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No formal assessment or activities are undertaken in week 0 | |
| 1 | Introduction: Sockets, RPC, Objects, Clusters, Grids, Clouds; Administrative: Lab Registration; Check MURPA Schedule | Tutorial 1 |
| 2 | Distributing Computing Schemes | Tutorial 2; Lab 1 |
| 3 | Concurrency, Parallelism, Synchronisation, Deadlocks, Safety | Tutorial 3; Lab 2 |
| 4 | Grid Middleware | Tutorial 4; Lab 3 |
| 5 | Grid Security | Tutorial 5; Lab 4 |
| 6 | Advanced Distributed Networking Technologies | Tutorial 6; Lab 5 |
| 7 | Clusters and Distributed Programming Environments | Tutorial 7; Lab 6; Assignment 1 due Friday Week 7 |
| 8 | High Performance Computing and Grids | Tutorial 8; Lab 7 |
| 9 | Distributed Application Performance Modelling | Tutorial 9; Lab 8 |
| 10 | Reliability of Distributed Applications | Tutorial 10; Lab 9 |
| 11 | The Design of Distributed Applications | Tutorial 11; Lab 10 |
| 12 | Limits to Distributed Application Performance | Tutorial 12; Lab 11; Assignment 2 due Friday Week 12 |
| SWOT VAC | No formal assessment is undertaken in SWOT VAC | |
| Examination period | LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/ academic/education/assessment/ assessment-in-coursework-policy.html |
*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.
Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)
Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/
To meet the learning objectives for this unit students are expected to attend 80% of Tutorials (MURPA) and 80% of Labs. Failure to meet these expectations may cause difficulties in passing the unit.
Individual assessment of independent work by student:
Individual assessment of independent work by student:
Individual assessment of independent work by student:
Individual assessment of independent work by student:
It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an online quiz).
Submission must be made by the due date otherwise penalties will be enforced.
You must negotiate any extensions formally with your campus unit leader via the in-semester special consideration process: http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/equity/special-consideration.html.
Resubmission is not permitted.
External materials must be properly cited and referenced.
Monash has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University's academic standards, and to provide advice on how they might uphold them.
You can find Monash's Education Policies at:
http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/academic/education/index.html
Key educational policies include:
The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at www.monash.edu.au/students. For Sunway see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/
The Monash University Library provides a range of services and resources that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Sunway, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.
Academic support services may be available for students who have a disability or medical condition. Registration with the Disability Liaison Unit is required. Further information is available as follows: