The MBC information booklet - RMIT University

Chapter 7: Networked & Distributed Systems
CHAPTER 7 Networked & Distributed
Systems
7.1 Introduction
These topics are provided in the four courses currently taught in the DC cluster, as follows:
COSC1174 Advanced Client/Server Architectures provides an in-depth understanding of
advanced client/server architectures (e.g. Common Object Request Broker Architectures).
Topics include: the object model, overview of CORBA, static and dynamic invocation, inter
and intra ORB communication, basic object adaptor, mappings. Also, this course provides
opportunity to design and implement advanced client/server applications using a CORBAcompliant
product.
ISYS1095 Distributed Databases discusses the theory and practice of Distributed
Databases and Multidatabase systems. Topics included are: database architectures and
design, transaction management, query processing, concurrency control, recovery, as
they apply to distributed databases. Special cases such as Object-Oriented distributed
databases and heterogeneous multidatabase systems are also discussed.
COSC1195 Foundations of Distributed Computing discusses the basic concepts of
distributed computing, and gives an insight into the principles of distributed operating
systems. The topics covered include Remote Procedure Call, name and time services,
replication, fault tolerance, middleware infrastructures such as DCE and CORBA. The
practical work gives the students the opportunity to explore some topics in a greater depth.
COSC2304 Mobile and Wireless Computing introduces one of the newest and fastest
developing fields in the discipline, where significant application developments are
anticipated and have already started.
Without question, no area of the computer industry is undergoing faster change than that
of networked computing. Both Windows NT and Unix are foundation technologies. In
COSC1176 Network Programming, basic and some advanced aspects of Unix and NT
networking are covered.
In COSC2107 Network Security, students will gain advanced knowledge in computer
network security, which is becoming one of the most pressing problems in computing.
Topics include: threats and attacks; system security; network security; application security;
port security; data security; and security management.
Parallel programming uses multiple computers, or computers with multiple internal
processors, to solve a problem at a greater computational speed than using a single
computer. It also offers the opportunity to tackle larger problems; that is, problems with
more computational steps or more memory requirements, the latter because multiple
computers and multiprocessor systems often have more total memory than a single
computer. Several software tools are available for message-passing parallel
programming, including PVM and several implementations of MPI, which are all freely
available. COSC2206 Parallel Computing covers fundamentals of parallel computer
architectures such as SISD, MIMD etc. and parallel programming such as MPI and PVM
which is linked to real parallel programming software. It covers the techniques of parallel
programming in a practical manner that enables students to write and evaluate their
parallel programs.
Pursuant to demand, the courses on offer in 2006 are:
• COSC1174—Advanced Client/Server Architectures (see page 34)
• ISYS1095—Distributed Databases (see page 35)
• COSC1170—Foundations Distributed Computing (see page 35)
• COSC2304—Mobile and Wireless Computing (see page 26)
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