Introduction to Distributed Systems

1
Introduction to Distributed Systems

• Definition
• A distributed system is a collection of
  independent computers that appears to the users
  of the system as a single computer.
• Three advances from the 80s
• Powerful micro-processor
• 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit
• x86 family, 68k family, Alpha chip
• Clock rate 4.77MHz up to 4.0 GHz
• Computer network
• Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network
  (WAN), MAN, Wireless Network (Wi-Fi), Mobile
  Network (3G/UMTS)
• Network type Ethernet, Token-bus, Token-ring,
  FDDI, ATM, Fast-Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre
  Channel
• Transfer rate 64 kbps up to 1Gbps
• Secondary storage (Hard Disk)
• 5-10Mb(85), 100-250Mb(90), 1Gb(93), 4-6Gb(97),
  10-20Gb(00), 80-120Gb.
• Example
• A number of workstations plus a pool of
  processors in a departments network. If the
  system as a whole looked and acted like a single
  processor timesharing system, it would qualify as
  a distributed system.

2
Distributed Systems VS. Centralized Systems

• Advantages
• Economics Microprocessors offer a better price /
  performance than mainframes
• Speed A distributed system may have more total
  computing power than a mainframe.
• Inherent distribution Some application like
  banking, inventory systems involve spatially
  separated machines
• Reliability If 5 of the machines are downed,
  the system as a whole can still survive with a 5
  degradation of performance.
• Incremental growth Computing power can be added
  in small increments
• Data sharing Allow many users access to a common
  database
• Device sharing Allow many users to share
  expensive peripherals.
• Communication Make human-to-human communication
  easier-- Email, ICQ.
• Flexibility Spread the workload over the
  available machines in the most cost effective
  way.
• Disadvantages
• Software Little software exists at present for
  distributed systems
• Networking The network can saturate or cause
  other problems
• Security Easy access also applies to secret data

3
Hardware Concepts

• Loosely coupled vs. tightly coupled hardware
• SISD Single Instruction stream, Single Data
  stream -- all traditional single CPU machines.
• SIMD Single Instruction stream, Multiple Data
  streams -- parallel super-computers.
• MISD Multiple Instruction streams, Single Data
  stream -- no known computer.
• MIMD Multiple Instruction streams, Multiple Data
  streams -- all distributed systems
• Bus-based Multiprocessors -- some numbers of CPUs
  connected to a common bus along with a memory
  module.
• Switched Multiprocessors -- more than 64
  processors connected by crossbar switch (n x n)
  or omega network (n log (n)/2)
• Bus-based Multicomputers -- some numbers of
  workstations connected by a LAN.
• Switched Multicomputers -- Computers connected by
  various connection topologies -- Grid, Hypercube.

4
Software Concepts

• Loosely coupled software allows machines and
  users of a distributed system to be fundamentally
  independent of one another, but still to interact
  to a limited degree where that is necessary.
• Consider a group of PCs, each with its own CPU,
  memory, hard disk, and OS.
• They share some resources, such as printers and
  databases, over a LAN.
• This is a loosely coupled system since the
  individual machines are clearly distinguishable,
  each with its own job to do.
• If network goes down, each of them can still work
  although some functionality may be lost (printing
  files).
• So the above is considered to be a distributed
  system.
• For the same system as above, but without the
  network. To print a file, the user will write the
  file on a floppy disk, carry it to a machine
  connected to a printer and print it. Is this a
  distributed system, only now a bit more loosely
  coupled.
• The answer is it is hard to say or it is an
  arguable distributed system.
• On the contrary, the following is a more tightly
  coupled distributed system.
• A multiprocessor dedicated to run a single chess
  program in parallel. Each processor is assigned a
  board to evaluate, after the evaluation, the
  result will be passed back and will be given a
  new board to work on.

5
Network OS, Distributed OS, and Multiprocessor OS

• Network OS
• Config I All stand-alone workstation each with
  its own CPU, memory, hard disk, and OS, and
  connect by a LAN.
• Make use of the following commands rlogin, rcp,
  rsh, telnet, ftp.
• Config II System like the above but with some
  dedicated servers -- file servers, application
  servers, ftp server, mail server, name server,
  PPP server.
• True Distributed System Single-system image or
  virtual uniprocessor concept
• A single, global interprocess communication
  mechanism -- do not have to deal with different
  mechanisms on different machines and deal with
  local versus remote machines.
• A global protection scheme -- no mixing of access
  control list, protection bits and capabilities.
• Process management is the same everywhere -- how
  processes are created, destroyed, started, and
  stopped must not vary from machine to machine.
• File system must look the same everywhere --
  having different filename construct is a
  nightmare.
• Same system call everywhere.
• Kernel will take care of scheduling, memory
  management, and local resources management -- no
  need to centralized these.

6
Network OS, Distributed OS, and Multiprocessor OS
(continue)
7
Design Issues

• Transparency
• Location transparency The users cannot tell
  where resources are located
• Migration transparency Resources can move at
  will without changing their names.
• Replication transparency The users cannot tell
  how many copies exist.
• Concurrency transparency Multiple users can
  share resources automatically.
• Parallelism transparency Activities can happen
  in parallel without users knowing
• Flexibility
• Monolithic kernel vs. Microkernel
• Microkernel -- keep it small, use user-level
  servers for system services
• An interprocess communication mechanism
• Some memory management
• A small amount of low-level process management
  and scheduling
• Low-level input / output
• Monolithic kernel
• provide the file system and directory system
• full process management, and much system call
  handling

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Design Issues (continue)

• Reliability
• Availability
• Fault tolerance
• Performance
• Fine-grained parallelism
• Coarse-grained parallelism
• Scalability
• Potential bottle-necks in very large distributed
  systems
• Centralized components A single mail server for
  all users
• Centralized tables A single on-line telephone
  book
• Centralized algorithms Doing routing based on
  complete information
• Use decentralized algorithms
• No machine has complete information about the
  system state
• Machines make decisions based only on local
  information
• Failure of one machine does not ruin the
  algorithm
• There is no implicit assumption that a global
  clock exists