Homework and Programming Assignments

There will be several homework and programming assignments. Homework serves as food for thought while programming assignments are to help the students in gaining hands on experiences in distributed systems design and implementation. Students should be ready for on-line demonstration when asked by the instructor.

Assignments

Assignment 0: Think about the consequences of moving from centralized systems to distributed systems. Download and install Python, Ray, Dask, Spark and PySpark on your lab machines or with VirtualBox. Then try them out. (No need to turn in anything.)
Assignment 1: The Byzantine Generals Problem. (Check the lecture note 03ArchModels.pdf(p.45) for more details.) Due date: Mar 19, 2024
Assignment 2: Multi-threaded Server/Clients. (Check the lecture note 05Processes.pdf(p.81) for more details.) Due date: Apr 23, 2024
Assignment 3: Python TCP, UDP, Client-Server and Multicasting. (Check the lecture note 06Communication.pdf(p.31) for more details.) Due date: May 14, 2024
Assignment 4: RPC/RMI Exercises. (Check the lecture note 07bRMI.pdf(p.38) for more details.) Due date: June 4, 2024
Assignment 5: Building Shared Message Board (Optional). (Check the lecture note 08IndirectComm.pdf(p.56) for more details.) Due date: June 18, 2024

Python Programming Resources

The Python Wiki (https://wiki.python.org/moin/)
The Python Tutorial (https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/)
W3Schools Python Tutorial (https://www.w3schools.com/python/)
Python Tutorial for Beginners: Learn Programming Basics (https://www.guru99.com/python-tutorials.html)
Distributed Computing Fundamentals Using Python (http://selkie.macalester.edu/DistributedPython/index.html)
Modern Parallel and Distributed Python: A Quick Tutorial on Ray (https://towardsdatascience.com/modern-parallel-and-distributed-python-a-quick-tutorial-on-ray-99f8d70369b8)

Spark Programming Resources

Apache Spark - Unified Analytics Engine for Big Data (https://spark.apache.org/)
Spark By Examples | Learn Spark Tutorial with Examples (https://sparkbyexamples.com/)
Apache Spark Tutorial - Tutorialspoint (https://www.tutorialspoint.com/apache_spark/index.htm)
MapReduce and Distributed Computing Using Spark (https://statistics.berkeley.edu/computing/spark)
Introduction to PySpark | Distributed Computing with Apache Spark (https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-pyspark-distributed-computing-apache-spark/)

Other Programming Resources

The Java Tutorials - Concurrency http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/index.html
Android Developer Training Materials http://developer.android.com/training/index.html
Android Tutorial - Tutorialspoint - https://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/index.htm
POSIX Threads Programming https://hpc-tutorials.llnl.gov/posix/