[20% of grade] Present 2-3 papers. I may precede each topic with a short discussion of some background to set the stage for your presentations.
[10% of grade] Write and post a summary for each paper before it is scheduled to be presented and discussed in class. Summaries should be posted to the WebCT discussion board (see below). There will be a separate topic per paper. Summaries do not have to be long (a few paragraphs at most). However, they should not be just a rote regurgitation of a part of the paper. Each summary should reflect your understanding of the paper, perhaps identifying things that you particularly like or dislike, open issues, etc.
[20% of grade] Participate in in-class discussions. In fact, the idea behind the summaries is to ensure that you read the papers before class so you can participate in the in-class discussions. This is a key component of understanding class material.
[40% of grade] Do a project as part of a team.
[10% of grade] Write a position paper.
Class mailing list: dcs_545_s06@rams.rutgers.edu
Discussion: newsgroup-like discussion board and chat room are available through WebCTInclude [cs545] on the subject line of all emails sent to the list or to instructor/TA. If you don't follow this protocol, your email will likely be discarded.
Do NOT abuse the mailing list; it is only intended for the dissemination of time-critical information. Use the discussion board on WebCT for questions and discussions.
Required: Andrew S. Tanenbarm and Maarten van Steen. Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms. Prentice Hall, 2002. ISBN 0-13-088893-1.
Other useful books:
- Chow and Johnson. Distributed Operating Systems & Algorithms. Addison Wesley, 1997. ISBN: 0-201-49838-3.
- Lynch. Distributed Algorithms. Morgan Kaufmann, 1996. ISBN: 1-55860-348-4.