This syllabus is probably correct through 3/15, Theory I.
The assignment for Theory I will not be due until after
Spring vacation, to give you time to switch gears and
get into the theory part of the course (which is about
2 weeks of the course).
BW
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CS254 SYLLABUS Feb 25, 2000
Instructors: Dr. Robert Walton and Prof. Thomas Cheatham
walton@deas.harvard.edu
Web: www.deas.harvard.edu/courses/cs254r/2000/
Text: The Grid:
Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure
Ed. by Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman
Morgan Kaufmann 1999
ISBN 1-55860-475-8
There will be 60-90 minutes of lecture and 30-60 minutes
of discussion per meeting. The lecturing will be broken
into 2 or more parts each followed by discussion.
The following is subject to change; but The Grid text
will be the subject of the first lectures.
Meeting
Date Lecture Reading.
2/2 Introduction.
Computational Grids. The Grid, ch 1 & 2
2/9 Applications:
Distributed Supercomputing The Grid, ch 3
Distributed Real-Time The Grid, ch 4
Data-Intensive Computing The Grid, ch 5
Teleimmersion The Grid, ch 6
2/16 Programming Tools:
Application Specific Tools The Grid, ch 7
Languages and Libraries The Grid, ch 8
Object-Based Approaches The Grid, ch 9
Commodity Supercomputing The Grid, ch 10
2/23 Services I:
Globus The Grid, ch 11
Schedulers The Grid, ch 12
Resource Management The Grid, ch 13
3/1 Services II:
Security The Grid, ch 16
Infrastructure I:
Computing Platforms The Grid, ch 17
Network Protocols The Grid, ch 18
3/8 Infrastructure II:
Network Quality of Service The Grid, ch 19
Operating Systems The Grid, ch 20
Network Infrastructure The Grid, ch 21
3/15 Theory I: Impossibility Results:
Disconnection
Asynchronous 1-Point Failure
3/22 Theory II: Possibility Results: [Might change]
2-Phase Commit
3-Phase Commit
Flooding Algorithms
Exponential Algorithms
3/29 Spring Recess
4/5 Security:
Java
SSH
Kerberos
4/12 Directories and Metadata I:
LDAP
XML
4/19 Directories and Metadata II:
TBD
Globe
4/26 Java Trinkets
JINI
Java Spaces
Javelin
Popcorn
5/3 Large Scale Data Storage:
TBD
5/10 TBD
5/17 TBD
`The Grid' Book Assignments
Each week when we discuss particular chapters of the
book, you are NOT REQUIRED to have read the chapters
in advance. The lecture during class will introduce
the material in the chapters, often briefly. There
will be a set of questions whose possible answers
will be discussed somewhat during the class. New
questions may also be posed. Many of these ques-
tions will then be assigned during class as home-
work. After the class, each student is then to read
the chapters and compose answers to any 2 of the
assigned questions. The student may freely choose
which 2 questions to answer in any week.
The exact assignment agreed upon during a class will
be posted on the web site by the morning after the
class, so there is no confusion. This posting is
the final definition of the assignment. No printed
version of these assignments will be handed out,
but printed versions of some questions may be handed
out.
The answers are to be submitted by
e-mailing them to cs254-grader@deas.harvard.edu
by 1pm on the Tuesday before the next class
including the phrase `question #' in the e-mail
`Subject', where # is the question number that
uniquely identifies the question in the course
(e.g., `question 1.1', `question 2.5')
PLEASE e-mail each question separately; they
will be automatically sorted by question #
and then the answers are to be resubmitted
as hardcopy at the next class (the day after
you e-mail the answers)
PLEASE BE SURE to include your name and the
question number on the hardcopy
The hardcopy will be graded. The e-mailed answers
will be made available only to class members via
the internet soon after the class when the hardcopy
is submitted. It is likely that the e-mailed
answers will also be made available during the class
at which the assignment is due, and discussed during
class.
There is an almost zero-tolerance lateness policy
for these `The Grid' question assignments. The
only lateness tolerated is that the e-mail
submission may occur between 1pm Tuesday and the
start of class at 4pm Wednesday, at the loss of
1 point (out of 10, see below).
In computing the course grade for a student, only
the highest 2/3'rds, roughly, of the student's
question scores will be counted. This allows for
occasional differences in view between grader and
student about what is a good answer, and for some
illness. Additional excuse for `The Grid' question
assignments may only be obtained with a note from a
doctor or appropriate officer of the university.
If a student chooses, she or he may answer only one
question, instead of two, in a given week, and
the exclusion of the lowest 1/3'rd question scores
can be applied to the other question.
An answer to a question should not be longer than
a printed page (e.g. 60 lines of 80 columns), and
may be as short as one half page if well written.
It is not necessary to give a complete answer to
questions that would require long answers; in these
cases it will suffice to answer some part of the
question, or to give details of some part of the
whole answer.
IN ANY CASE the answer should contain one or more
clear, coherent, and interesting ideas.
Student's may need to visit and read web sites in
order to answer a question.
Students MAY NOT DISCUSS questions they are answer-
ing with other students who are answering the SAME
question. Students may discuss questions they are
answering with other students who are answering
DIFFERENT questions.
We really do not want to see two students submitting
highly similar answers, and may deduct points
precipitously if we see a recurring pattern of this.
However, two students may talk with each other if
they are answering different parts of the same
question, or if they are taking different sides of
a debatable issue that is the answer. As long as
students are not trying to answer the same thing,
they can talk or show each other their answers.
Each `The Grid' question answer will be graded on a
scale of 1 to 10.
We currently anticipate that each student will
be asked to submit answers to 12 questions, of which
8 will count in the grade, and these will count
for 25% of the total class grade. These numbers
may change during the course.
This assignment scheme will probably not be changed
during the course, but we reserve the right to do
so.
Distributed Computing Projects
The class will be divided into teams and the
following will happen:
(1) Each team will port a computer program to
a distributed programming environment.
(2) Each team will then port a different computer
program to a different distributed programming
environment.
(3) The teams will be reorganized into different
teams whose members have experience among
them in porting a single computer program to
two different environments. These teams will
examine the program code for the two environ-
ments, and write a very short report comparing
the two different environments.
The available environments are likely to be Globus,
Legion, and maybe DCE.
Details are TBD.
This assignment is subject to change.
Theory Assignments
Much of the theory in this course involves defining
an NDFA that models some real world systems very
abstractly, and then proving theorems about the
NDFA.
Students will be given handouts that state the
definitions, theorems, and proofs to be covered.
There will be gaps in the proofs for students to
fill in: these will be the course theory assign-
ments.
Details are TBD.
These assignments are subject to change.
Formal Description Assignments
The class will be given several essays describing
tools or programming systems very compactly using
mildly formal methods (e.g., labeled graphs to
describe data and compact descriptions of operations
on the data in mathematical English).
The class will be divided into teams of 2 students,
each of which will be asked to write a formal
description of some tool or system of interest to
this course.
This process may be repeated, so every student is
involved in 2 teams and responsible for 2
descriptions.
Details are TBD.
These assignments are subject to change.
Broker Project Assignments
The class will be given a simple prototype implemen-
tation of the WBW storage system, in which it is
possible to program some kinds of brokers. The
class will be divided into teams, each of which
will program a different broker.
An example broker would be a `Universal Library',
in which people register things they are willing
to lend (e.g., rare computer science texts), and
other people arrange to borrow these things.
Details are TBD.
These assignments are subject to change.