Distributed Computing

An introduction to fundamental theories of concurrent computation and associated programming languages for developing distributed and mobile computing systems. Starting from the premise that understanding the foundations of concurrent programming is key to developing distributed computing systems, this book first presents the fundamental theories of concurrent computing and then introduces the programming languages that help develop distributed computing systems at a high level of abstraction. The major theories of concurrent computation—including the π-calculus, the actor model, the join calculus, and mobile ambients—are explained with a focus on how they help design and reason about distributed and mobile computing systems. The book then presents programming languages that follow the theoretical models already described, including Pict, SALSA, and JoCaml. The parallel structure of the chapters in both part one (theory) and part two (practice) enable the reader not only to compare the different theories but also to see clearly how a programming language supports a theoretical model. The book is unique in bridging the gap between the theory and the practice of programming distributed computing systems. It can be used as a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in computer science or as a reference for researchers in the area of programming technology for distributed computing. By presenting theory first, the book allows readers to focus on the essential components of concurrency, distribution, and mobility without getting bogged down in syntactic details of specific programming languages. Once the theory is understood, the practical part of implementing a system in an actual programming language becomes much easier.

Designing distributed computing systems is a complex process requiring a solid understanding of the design problems and the theoretical and practical aspects of their solutions. This comprehensive textbook covers the fundamental principles and models underlying the theory, algorithms and systems aspects of distributed computing. Broad and detailed coverage of the theory is balanced with practical systems-related issues such as mutual exclusion, deadlock detection, authentication, and failure recovery. Algorithms are carefully selected, lucidly presented, and described without complex proofs. Simple explanations and illustrations are used to elucidate the algorithms. Important emerging topics such as peer-to-peer networks and network security are also considered. With vital algorithms, numerous illustrations, examples and homework problems, this textbook is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of electrical and computer engineering and computer science. Practitioners in data networking and sensor networks will also find this a valuable resource. Additional resources are available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521876346.

In 1992 we initiated a research project on large scale distributed computing systems (LSDCS). It was a collaborative project involving research institutes and universities in Bologna, Grenoble, Lausanne, Lisbon, Rennes, Rocquencourt, Newcastle, and Twente. The World Wide Web had recently been developed at CERN, but its use was not yet as common place as it is today and graphical browsers had yet to be developed. It was clear to us (and to just about everyone else) that LSDCS comprising several thousands to millions of individual computer systems (nodes) would be coming into existence as a consequence both of technological advances and the demands placed by applications. We were excited about the problems of building large distributed systems, and felt that serious rethinking of many of the existing computational paradigms, algorithms, and structuring principles for distributed computing was called for. In our research proposal, we summarized the problem domain as follows: “We expect LSDCS to exhibit great diversity of node and communications capability. Nodes will range from (mobile) laptop computers, workstations to supercomputers. Whereas mobile computers may well have unreliable, low bandwidth communications to the rest of the system, other parts of the system may well possess high bandwidth communications capability. To appreciate the problems posed by the sheer scale of a system comprising thousands of nodes, we observe that such systems will be rarely functioning in their entirety.

A comprehensive guide to distributed algorithms that emphasizes examples and exercises rather than mathematical argumentation.

Mit der Verfügbarkeit verteilter Systeme wächst der Bedarf an einer fundamentalen Diskussion dieses Gebiets. Hier ist sie! Abgedeckt werden die grundlegenden Konzepte wie Zeit, Zustand, Gleichzeitigkeit, Reihenfolge, Kenntnis, Fehler und Übereinstimmung. Die Betonung liegt auf der Entwicklung allgemeiner Mechanismen, die auf eine Vielzahl von Problemen angewendet werden können. Sorgfältig ausgewählte Beispiele (Taktgeber, Sperren, Kameras, Sensoren, Controller, Slicer und Syncronizer) dienen gleichzeitig der Vertiefung theoretischer Aspekte und deren Umsetzung in die Praxis. Alle vorgestellten Algorithmen werden mit durchschaubaren, induktionsbasierten Verfahren bewiesen.

Gives a thorough exposition of network spanners and other locality-preserving network representations such as sparse covers and partitions.

* Comprehensive introduction to the fundamental results in the mathematical foundations of distributed computing * Accompanied by supporting material, such as lecture notes and solutions for selected exercises * Each chapter ends with bibliographical notes and a set of exercises * Covers the fundamental models, issues and techniques, and features some of the more advanced topics

Concurrent and Distributed Computing in Java addresses fundamental concepts in concurrent computing with Java examples. The book consists of two parts. The first part deals with techniques for programming in shared-memory based systems. The book covers concepts in Java such as threads, synchronized methods, waits, and notify to expose students to basic concepts for multi-threaded programming. It also includes algorithms for mutual exclusion, consensus, atomic objects, and wait-free data structures. The second part of the book deals with programming in a message-passing system. This part covers resource allocation problems, logical clocks, global property detection, leader election, message ordering, agreement algorithms, checkpointing, and message logging. Primarily a textbook for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, this thorough treatment will also be of interest to professional programmers.