DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM

Chapter-1
Introduction 1
Objectives/ Learning Outcomes
•After completing this chapter, the students will be able to:

Define Distributed System

Understand the difference between centralized and distributed
system

List Common Characteristics of Distributed System.

Understand Advantages Distributed System.
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Understand the goal of Distributed system.

 Definition of Distributed System

Distributed System is an application that executes a collection of protocols to

coordinate the actions of multiple processes on a communication network, such that all

components cooperate together to perform a single or small set of related tasks.


A Distributed System is any network structure that consists of autonomous computers

that are connected using a distribution middleware.


A Distributed System contains a collection of autonomous computers linked through a

computer network and distribution middleware.

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 Cont…
Distributed Systems facilitate sharing different resources and capabilities, to
provide users with a single and integrated coherent network.

• A Distributed System, also known as distributed computing, is a system with

multiple components located on different machines that communicate and
coordinate actions in order to appear as a single coherent system to the end-user.

• The machines that are a part of a distributed system may be computers, physical
servers, virtual machines, containers, or any other node that can connect to the
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network, have local memory, and communicate by passing messages.

 Cont…
Distributed System is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems.
A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked
computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one
another from any system.

Distributed systems are groups of networked computers which share a common goal for
their work.

A Distributed System is a computer network that consists of

independent components communicating through a decentralized protocol.

The computers in a distributed system are not necessarily constrained to the same
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geographic locale, but rather can be located anywhere across the world.
 Cont…
A Distributed computer system consists of multiple software components that are
on multiple computers, but run as a single system.

The computers that are in a Distributed System can be physically close together
and connected by a local network, or they can be geographically distant and
connected by a wide area network.

A Distributed System can consist of any number of possible configurations, such

as mainframes, personal computers, workstations, minicomputers, and so on.

The goal of distributed computing is to make such a network work as a single

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computer.
Cont…..

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 Cont…
The existence of multiple autonomous computers is transparent to the user
in a distributed system.

The user is not aware that the jobs are executed by multiple computers
exist in remote locations.

This means that like centralized systems no single computer in the system
carries the entire load on system resources that running a computer
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program usually required.

Cont…

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 Cont…
A distributed System is a collection of independent computers
that appears to its users as a single coherent system.
Two aspects:

(1)Independent computers and (2) Single System

Middleware 10
 Cont…

Figure 1-1. A distributed system organized as Middleware.

The middleware layer extends over multiple machines, and offers each
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application the same interface.

 Generally
 A distributed system consists of a collection of autonomous
computers, connected through a network and distribution middleware,
which enables computers to coordinate their activities and to share the
resources of the system.

 So that users perceive the system as a single, integrated computing

facility.
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 Cont…
A Distributed System is a loosely coupled collection of a autonomous
computers connected by a network using system software to produce a
single integrated computing environment”.

A distributed system is piece of software that serves to coordinate the

actions of several computers.

This coordination is achieved by exchanging messages, i.e., pieces of

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data conveying information

 Cont…
The system relies on a network that connects the computers and
handles the routing of messages.

A Distributed System is a network of autonomous computers that

communicate with each other in order to achieve a goal.

A Distributed System is one in which components located at networked

computers communicate and coordinate their actions only by passing
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messages.
 Example of Distributed Systems
Social Networking (Facebook)
Distributed File Systems
P2P Network
Cloud Network
Grid Computing
Google Web Server, Indexing Server, Google bots, etc. 15
 Centralized Vs. Distributed System
 One component with non-autonomous parts.
 Component shared by users all the time.
 All resources accessible.
 Software runs in a single process.
 Single Point of control.
 Single Point of failure. 16
 Centralized Vs. Distributed System
 Multiple autonomous components.
 Components are not shared by all users.
 Resources may not be accessible.
 Software runs in concurrent processes on different
processors.
 Multiple Points of control.
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 Multiple Points of failure.

 Advantages Distributed over Centralized System
Economics: A collection of microprocessors offer a better
price/performance than mainframes. Low price/performance ratio: 
cost effective way to increase computing power.

Reliability: If one machine crashes, the system as a whole can still

survive. Higher availability and improved reliability.

Speed: A distributed system may have more total computing power

than a mainframe. 

Incremental Growth: Computing power can be added in small

increments. This leads to Modular expandability 18
 General Advantage of DS
Performance: very often a collection of processors can provide higher performance (and
better price/performance ratio) than a centralized computer.

Distribution: many applications involve, by their nature, spatially separated machines

(banking, commercial, automotive system).

Reliability (fault tolerance): if some of the machines crash, the system can survive.
Incremental growth: as requirements on processing power grow, new machines can be added
incrementally.

Sharing of data/resources: shared data is essential to many applications (banking, computer

supported cooperative work, reservation systems); other resources can be also shared.
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Communication: facilitates human-to-human communication

 Goals of Distributed System
The general goal of distributed system is to:

Making resources available

 Distribution transparency
 Openness
Scalability
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 Common Characteristics
 Certain common characteristics can be used to assess distributed
systems
 Resource Sharing
 Openness
 Concurrency
 Scalability
 Fault Tolerance
 Transparency 21
 Resource Sharing
Ability to use any hardware, software or data anywhere in
the system.

 Resource manager controls access, provides naming scheme

and controls concurrency.

 Resource sharing model (e.g. client/ server or object-based)

describing how resources are provided, they are used and provider
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and user interact with each other.

 Openness
Openness is concerned with extensions and improvements of
distributed systems.

 Detailed interfaces of components need to be published and New

components have to be integrated with existing components.

 Differences in data representation of interface types on different

processors (of different vendors) have to be resolved. 23
 Cont…
 The openness of distributed systems is determined primarily by
the degree to which new resource-sharing services can be added
and be made available for use by a variety of client programs.

 If the well-defined interfaces for a system are published, it is

easier for developers to add new features or replace sub-systems
in the future.  24
 Concurrency
There is a possibility that several clients will attempt to access
a shared resource at the same time.

Any object that represents a shared resource in a distributed

system must be responsible for ensuring that operates correctly
in a concurrent environment.
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 Scalability
Adaption of distributed systems to
 Accommodate more users
 Respond faster (this is the hard one)

 Usually done by adding more and/or faster processors.

 Components should not need to be changed when scale of a system
increases.

 Design components to be scalable! 26

 Cont…
• Scalability has 3 dimensions:
Size
 Number of users and resources to be processed.
 Problem associated is overloading
Geography
 Distance between users and resources.
 Problem associated is communication reliability
Administration
 As the size of distributed systems increases, many of the system needs to be
controlled. 27

 Problem associated is administrative mess

 Fault Tolerance
Hardware, Software and Networks fail!
 Distributed systems must maintain availability even at
low levels of hardware/software/network reliability.

 Fault tolerance is achieved by

• Recovery

• Redundancy 28
 Transparency
Distributed systems should be perceived by users and
application programmers as a whole rather than as a
collection of cooperating components.

 These represent various properties that distributed systems

should have.
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 Cont…
No Transparency Description
1 Access Hide Differences in data representation and how a
resources is accessed
2 Location Hide where a resources is located
3 Migration Hide that a resource may be moved to another location
4 Relocation Hide that a resource may be moved to another location
while in use
5 Replication Hide that a resource is replicated

6 Concurrency Hide that a resource may be shared by several

competitive users
7 Failure Hide failures and recovery of a resources 30
 THANK YOU!!!

QUESTIONS???
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