Distributed systems in the undergraduate curriculum

ABSTRACT

Much of the design and development for new computing systems in the 1990's is being done in a networked computing environment with distributed goals. So why do so many 4-year college computer science departments still not teach "Distributed computing systems" in their undergraduate curriculum? The reasons are varied, but one main one is the belief that such a course requires expensive hardware and the very latest software development tools. This article demonstrates how a course for undergraduates in distributed computing can be successful at giving the students the concepts and principles, while enabling them to create such an application to experience the distributed environment, and do it all on a limited budget. The principles are highlighted along with a practical design and development component, which can give seniors a way to tie together many of the principles and applications of previous courses.

REFERENCES

• 1: [1] Bacon, J., Concurrent Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1993.
• 2: George Coulouris , Jean Dollimore , Tim Kindberg, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1994
• 3: [3] Mullender, S., Distributed Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1993.
• 4: [4] Renaud, P., Client-Server Systems, Wiley, 1993.
• 5: [5] Sinha, A., "Client-Server Computing", Communications of the ACM, July 92.
• 6: [6] Tanenbaum, A., & VanRenesse, R., "Distributed Operating Systems", Computing Surveys, Dec 85.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management