Text book

Hi,

What version of the text book are we supposed to get? I see the text book on the Module's page still lists the 2006 (1st Ed) book.

Tutorial letter hasn't been released on osprey yet either.

I can only seem to get the 2nd Edition book from suppliers.

Thanks,
Natasha

Distributed Systems. Principles and Paradigms. International
Edition
Andrew S Tanenbaum and Maarten van Steen
Prentice Hall
2002
ISBN: 0-13-121786-0

Hi

Does anybody know the correct text book to obtain. I was at Van Schaik this weekend to buy the prescribed text book. The lady there informed me that the Second edition is the version required for UNISA and even showed me the list that they have received from UNISA. When I showed her that the ISBN number was different, she searched on the system and said that when she types in my ISBN number she is directed to the ISBN number of the second edition. Based on this I purchased the textbook.
However I have been going through TUT 101 and see that my version is different, there is an additional chapter, and more importantly the exercises at the end of the chapters have fewer questions. I am not concern with the additional chapter however I am quite concern that the exercise questions will be different from what was requested in the assignments, this will affect my admission to the exam and year marks.
Is anyone else in the same boat as me?

Hi Mish,

The correct version required is in message Celene posted. That is the version all the courseware for this subject indicates: International Edition, 2002.

I could not locate this version either. I could only get the 2nd Edition (2006). I therefore decided to buy the book second hand.

Maybe you should contact the lecturers to determine whether your book will be alright as well.

I couldn't find the international version so I just bought the 2nd edition...

Hi Celene

Do you know how you are going to obtain the correct questions fot the assignments, please let me know if you do so that I,too may get the correct assignment questions.

oh.... I didn't actually think of that I don't have the textbook yet either. Maybe we must email the lecturer? He does get back to you...

I sent an email to the lecturer - I will post his response here once I get one

Hi,
I'm not in the position to tell whether there is a difference between the 2nd and first edition of the book. I have not received a copy yet. As a result, I'll only work with the first edition this year.
Regards

this is the lecturers reply......

Can someone who has a copy of the 1st edition perhaps put the questions on this forum? and then someone who already has a copy of the 2nd edition can just compare questions?

okay, I managed to get my hands on a 2nd edition textbook on line. The chapters covered in the tut letter are covered i nthe 2nd edition - so nothing is "missing".

the question 3 for chapter 2 (4 in new book) is as follows:
3. A reliable multicast service allows a sender to reliably pass messages to a collection of receivers. Does such a service belong to a middleware layer or should it be part of a lower level?

Does this question look similar to q3 in chapter 2 of the 1st edition book?

I got hold the international version (1st ed). Ch2 Q3 is exactly the same as the question you typed.

cool Ithink I am just going to add a note to my answers saying I am using the 2nd edition - maybe I will even type the questions out as well....

if you want to check all the questions, you can just send them to me (e.g. first few words of each question) and i'll verify. if they're not the same , i'm willing to photocopy & fax it to you.

I will do so as soon as I get my hands on the textbook hopefully tomorrow!

For all students that bought the second editions, please get hold of a copy of the questions from 1st Edition. Make a request to the lecturer to publish it online with the other course material.

I checked the questions that Celene mailed me (2nd Ed), and they are completely different. There are only a very few questions that correspond.

Hi guys.

I have gone and bought the 2nd edition of the book. I have typed out all the questions from the relevant chapters.

Please can i ask a huge favor of someone who has the 1st edition - to check that the questions are indeed the same, and to perhaps fill in the missing questions.

Thanks so much

Here are the questions...

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. An alternative definition for a distributed system is that of a collection of independent computers providing the view of being a single system, i.e., it is completely hidden from users that there even multiple computers. Give an example where this view would come in very handy?

1.9. Scalability can be achieved by applying different techniques. What are these techniques?

1.11. When a transaction is aborted, we have said that the world is restored to its previous state, as though the transaction had never happened. We lied. Give an example where resetting the world is impossible?

1.14. We already gave some examples of distributed pervasive systems: home systems, electronic health-care systems, and sensor networks. Extend this list with more examples.

1.15. (Lab Assignment) Sketch a design for a home system consisting of a separate media server that will allow for the attachment of a wireless client. The latter is connected to (analog) audio/video equipment and transforms the digital media streams to analog output. The server runs on a separate machine, possibly connected ti the Internet, but has no keyboard and/or monitor connected.

1.18.
1.19.

Chapter 2: Communication

2.3. A reliable multicast service allows a sender to reliably pass messages to a collection of receivers. Does such a service belong to a middleware layer, or should it be part of a lower-level layer?

2.4. Consider a procedure incr with two integer parameters. The procedure adds one to each parameter. Now suppose that it is called with the same variable twice, for example, as incr(i,i). If i is initially o, what value will it have afterward if call-by-reference is used? How about if copy/restore is used?

2.9. Would it be useful to make a distinction between static and dynamic RPCs?

2.15. In the text we stated that in order to automatically start a process to fetch messages from an input queue, a daemon is often used that the monitors the queue. Give an alternative implementation that does not make use of a daemon.

2.16. Routing table s inn IBM Websphere, and in many other message-queuing systems, are configured manually. Describe a way to do this automatically.

2.19. Give an example where multicasting is also useful for discrete data streams.

2.21. How could you guarantee a maximum end-to-end delay when a collection of computers is organized in a (logical or physical) ring?

2.22. How could you guarantee a minimum end-to-end delay when a collection of computers is organized in a (logical or physical) ring?

2.23. Despite that multicasting is technically feasible, there is very little support to deploy it in the Internet. The answer to this problem is to be sough in down-to-earth business models: no one really knows how to make money out of multicasting. What scheme can you invent?

2.24. Normally, application-level multicast trees are optimized with respect stretch which is measured in terms of delay or hop counts. Give an example where this metric could lead to very poor trees.

Chapter 3: Processes

3.1. In this problem you are to compare reading a file using a single-threaded file server and a multithreaded server. It takes 15 msec to get a request for work, dispatch it, and do the rest of the necessary processing, assuming that the data needed are in a cache on main memory. If a disk operation is needed as is the case one-third of the time, an additional 75 msec is required, during which time the thread sleeps. How many requests/sec can the server handle if it is single threaded? If it is multithreaded?

3.2. Would it make sense to limit the number of threads in server process?

3.7. X designates a user’s terminal as hosting the server, while the application is referred to as the client. Does this make sense?

3.9. Proxies can support replication transparency invoking each replica, as explained in the text. Can (the sever side of) an application be subject to a replicated calls?

3.11. Sketch the design of a multithreaded server that supports multiple protocols using sockets as its transport-level interface to the underlying operating sytem.

3.12. How can we prevent an application from circumventing a window manager, and thus being able to completely mess up a screen?

3.15. Strong mobility in UNIX systems could be supported by allowing a process to fork a child on a remote machine. Explain how this would work.

3.17. Consider a process P that requires access to file F which is locally available on the machine where P is currently running. When P moves to another machine, it still requires access to F. If the file-to-machine binding is fixed, how could the systemwide reference to F be implemented?

3.18. Describe in detail how TCP packets flow in the case of TCP handoff, along with the information on source and destination in the various headers.

3.20.
3.21.
3.23.
3.24.

I emailed the lecturer with regards to the assignment questions... his response was:

" I'll try my best to have the assignments' questions available online. There is no way we can change the prescribed book at this stage. "

Hi, I spoke to Natasha - she has a copy of 1st edition - apparently the questions are not the same. she said she would fax me a copy of the questions- as soon as I get them I will try and add them here or let you know here that I have the questions and then I can email them to you (or something).

This is just ghastly because book sellers only have 2nd eds of the book.... lovely.

I did the module last year and I used the international edition of the book and all the questions asked in the assignments were exactly the ones in the book.

yeah.. but this year the book shops have only 2nd edition and its differnt to the int edition...

However I accept been traveling through TUT 101 and see that my adaptation is different, there is an added chapter, and added chiefly the contest at the end of the capacity accept beneath questions. I am not affair with the added affiliate about I am absolutely affair that the exercise questions will be altered from what was requested in the assignments, this will affect my acceptance to the assay and year marks.