QA-ACS 0034

FACULTY of SCIENCE & LITERATURE

COMPUTER DEPARTMENT

Course Code: CSI510

Course Title: Distributed Operating System

Credit Hours: 45
Contact Hours/week: 3
Prerequisite: Co-requisite: None
Lecture Days & Time:
Semester:
Instructor:
Telephone:
Email:
Office Hours:

Aims of Course:
The aim of the course is to provide grounding in Distributed Operating System research and a
technical context for understanding current originality in the field. It covers the details of
virtualization and clouds, clusters, grid, MOSIX, and security. The course presumes that students
have basic familiarity with operating systems.

Learning Experiences:

The course is offered in 45 hours lecture with guest speakers, case studies, individual exercises,
project works and problem solving.

Course Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

• Get introduced to the principals of Distributed Operating Systems.

• Acquire knowledge of the recent research on Distributed Operating Systems.
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• Gain hands-on experience using simulations and project work.

COURSE CONTENT & SCHEDULE:

Week Topic

1, 2 Virtualization and Clouds

3, 4 Computer clusters

5, 6,7 Research on Distributed Operating Systems

8 Midterm Exam

9, 10 Grids and their applications

11, 12 MOSIX operating system

Security: security environment, formal models of

13, 14 secure systems, authentication, exploiting software,
attacks, defenses.

15 Final Exam

Core Textbook:
• Andrew Tanenbaum, Distributed Operating Systems, Pearson.
• Pradeep Sinha, Distributed Operating Systems: Concepts and Design, Wiley-IEEE Press.

CLASS RULES & DISCIPLINE

Classroom Etiquette
Cellular phones must be turned off during instruction in the classrooms and laboratories. The
first failure to respect this rule results in a warning. If a student chooses to disregard the warning
the student will be dismissed from class.
Students are also required to use proper social and professional etiquette when using e-mail. Use
of the AUCE network implies consent for monitoring of traffic, which is necessary for smooth
administration of the resource. AUCE does not overlook the use of inappropriate language when
writing messages to instructors, staff, or students. Student initiated messages to mass audiences
that are not part of the normal instructional process are prohibited.

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CHEATING
Cheating on exams or other work submitted in fulfillment of course requirements will result in
disciplinary action. Cheating discovered during an exam will result in the exam being collected
and the student being dismissed with instructions for a meeting with the faculty member.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s ideas or words as your own. Paraphrasing or
extensive rewriting of another’s work is still plagiarism if credit is not given to the author and a
citation of where the information can be found is not listed. This also applies to ideas or words
borrowed from the Internet.
A student who presents a plagiarized work is subject to disciplinary action. Faculty member who
discovers that plagiarized work has been submitted in fulfillment of course requirements will
immediately inform the student and will give the student an opportunity to explain. Students
guilty of plagiarism will be severely penalized. Penalties range from a failing grade to
suspension.

SABOTAGE
Students destroying, damaging, or stealing another’s work or working materials (including
laboratory experiments, computer programs, term papers, subject to appropriate disciplinary
measures.

FALSIFICATION
Students who misrepresent material or fabricate information in an academic exercise or
assignment (e.g., false or misleading citations, falsification of experiments or computer data) will
be held accountable.

STUDENT ATTENDANCE
Students are expected to attend all classes, laboratories, or required fieldwork. Adequate
measures will be taken concerning unjustified attendance as per the University’s rules and
regulations. No student is allowed to attend a class if his/her name does not appear on the
class roster. If a student is absent for more than one third of the required class sessions, he/she
will receive an ‘AW’ grade for the course. If the absence limit is reached after the withdrawal
deadline, the student will get an ‘F’ in the course. More specifically, a student may miss no more
than:
- 2 sessions for courses meeting once a week
- 4 sessions for courses meeting twice a week
- 6 sessions for courses meeting three times a week
- Students who exceed the above limits are automatically given an AW in the course.

MAKE UP EXAM

No makeup exam will take place unless following an approved petition based on valid excuses (Sickness
proved by an official report; Death in the family proved by a death certificate; Accidents proved by an
expert report; or Military/Official engagement).

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