CSCI.6962 Distributed Computing over the Internet-- Spring 2002

Instructor: Carlos Varela
Office: 109 Amos Eaton
Office Hours: Fr, 3:30-5:30pm; or by appointment
Meeting Place: Carnegie, Room 113
Meeting Hours: Tu-Fr, 2-3:20pm
TA: Robin Toll
TA Office: Lally 04
TA Office Hours: Tu-Fr, 10-12noon; or by appointment
Home page: http://www.cs.rpi.edu/courses/spring02/dci/
WebCT page

Course Objectives

This course will study theoretical foundations of concurrent and distributed programming languages -- namely process calculi, actors, join calculus, and mobile ambients. In the practical part, we will examine issues in the design of programming languages and architectures for worldwide and mobile computing. In particular, we will compare communication and synchronization aspects in specific actor, process and object oriented concurrent programming languages. Furthermore, we will critically present selected papers on coordination, mobility, naming, security and scalability in the context of distributed computing over the Internet.
Pre-requisites

The student should be familiar with at least one high-level programming language and basic network programming concepts. In particular, this course will assume familiarity with Java and programming with TCP/IP sockets. Knowledge of programming language semantics and lambda-calculus would be helpful but is not mandatory.

Course Contents

Models of Concurrent and Distributed Computing

Pi-Calculus
Actors
Mobile Ambients, Join Calculus

Programming Languages and Frameworks

Java RMI, Serialization, Concurrency Model
Objective CAML; Jocaml
CSP in Java; Nomadic PICT
Actor Foundry; SALSA

Research Topics

Coordination
Mobility
Naming
Scalability
Heterogeneity
Security

Tentative Course Syllabus

Date	Topic	Grade
01/15	Introduction to Distributed Computing over the Internet Part I -- Models/Theory.
01/18	Pi-Calculus - Introduction
01/22	Pi-Calculus - Operational Semantics
01/25	Pi-Calculus - Bisimilarity and Congruence
01/29	Actors - Introduction
02/01	Actors - Operational Semantics
02/05	Actors - Expression Equivalence
02/08	Mobile Ambients
02/12	Join Calculus
02/15	Partial Exam	20%
02/22	Introduction to Distributed Computing over the Internet Part II -- Programming Languages and Frameworks
02/26	Java RMI, Sockets, Reflection, Serialization
03/01	Java Concurrency -- Programming Project 1 Due 03/04	7.5%
03/05	CSP in Java / PICT
03/08	PICT / Nomadic PICT -- Programming Project 2 Due 03/18	7.5%
03/19	Objective CAML
03/22	JOCAML -- Programming Project 3 Due 03/25	7.5%
03/26	Actor Foundry
03/29	SALSA -- Programming Project 4 Due 04/08	7.5%
04/02	Introduction to Distributed Computing over the Internet Part III -- Research Topics -- Selected Paper Critiques and Presentations by Students	20%
04/05	Coordination
04/09	Coordination
04/12	Naming
04/16	Mobility
04/19	Scalability
04/23	Heterogeneity
04/26	Security
04/30	Final Exam	20%
05/xx	Rest!
	Class Participation	10%

Reading Material -- Part I

An Introduction to the Pi-Calculus by Joachim Parrow. pp. 3-14, 25-28, 39-42.

In Handbook of Process Algebra, ed. Bergstra, Ponse, Smolka, pages 479-543, Elsevier 2001.
URL: http://www.it.kth.se/~joachim/intro.ps

A Foundation for Actor Computation by Agha, Mason, Smith, Talcott. pp. 1-27.

In Journal of Functional Programming, 1996.
URL: http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/Papers/actor-semantics.ps

Mobile Ambients by Cardelli and Gordon.

In Theoretical Computer Science, special issue on Coordination, D. Le Métayer Editor. Vol 240/1, July 2000, pages 177-213, Elsevier.
URL: http://research.microsoft.com/Users/luca/Papers/MobileAmbients.US.ps

Join Calculus by Fournet and Gonthier.

"The reflexive chemical abstract machine and the join-calculus". In Proceedings Principles Of Programming Languages 1996.
URL: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~fournet/papers/popl-96.ps.gz

Software Links, Papers, and Tutorials -- Part II

Java

RMI
Sockets
Reflection
Serialization
Concurrency -- Excerpt from Concurrent Programming in Java by Doug Lea.
Online Java Tutorial: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

JCSP- Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) in Java
PICT -- Nomadic PICT
Objective CAML -- Jocaml
Actor Foundry
SALSA download -- OOPSLA'01 paper

Research Papers -- Part III

Paper critique guidelines are available here.
A schedule of the talks is available here.

Students will critique and present selected papers from recent journal and conference publications, including but not limited to:

ACM Transactions of Internet Technologies
IEEE Internet Computing
International COORDINATION Conferences
International Middleware Conferences
International WWW Conferences
Principles of Programming Languages (POPL)
Object Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA)

Here are some of the links:

Transactions on Internet Technology.
Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems.
Annual Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages.
Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Applications
Coordination Conference Proceedings in Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volumes 1061, 1282, 1594, and 1906.
Middleware Conference Proceedings in Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volumes 1795 and 2218.
International World Wide Web Conferences
IEEE Internet Computing

You may also search papers in CiteSeer.

Academic Integrity

The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities defines several types of academic dishonesty, all of which are applicable to this class. Students found in violation of academic dishonesty policies may receive a failing grade for this course.

Please contact the instructor if there is any question about academic (dis)honesty.

Last Updated -- March 5th, 2002.