Unit – I

Introduction to Distributed Computing Systems, System Models, and Issues in

Designing a Distributed Operating System, Examples of Distributed Systems.

1. What is Distributed System?

 A distributed system is a collection of independent computers that connected through network and
distributed middleware, which enables computer to coordinate their activities and to share the
resources of the system so that appear to the users of the system as a single computer.
 In such a system, multiple resources work together to deliver the required processing speed and the
operating system takes care of maintaining the system and overall maintenance.
 In distributed system computers are not independent but interconnected by a high speed network.
 It means that many computers, be they workstation or desktop systems linked together, can do
work of a high performance supercomputer.

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Distributed system.

Advantages:
 Inherently distributed application
 Information sharing among geographically distributed users.
 Resource sharing: hardware and Software.
 Better price performance ratio.
 Shorter response time and higher throughput.
 Higher reliability and availability against component failure.
 Extensible and incremental growth.

Disadvantages:
Complexity: Typically distributed systems are more complex than centralized system.
Security: More Susceptible to external attack.
Manageability: More effort required for System management.
Unpredictability: It responses depending on the system organization and network load.

3. Explain about Tightly and Loosely Coupled System.

Computer architecture consisting of interconnected multiple processors are basically of two types. They
are 1. Tightly Coupled System.
2. Loosely Coupled System.

1. Tightly Coupled System:

 In these systems, there is a single system wide primary memory that is shared by all the
processors.
 If any processor writes, for example the value 100 to the memory location x, any other processor
subsequently reading from location x will get the value 100.
  Therefore, in these systems, any communication between the processors usually takes place
through the shared memory.

2. Loosely Coupled System:

 In these systems, the processor do not share memory, and each processor writes the value 100 to
the memory Location x, this write operation will only change the contents of its local memory
and will not effect the contents of the memory of any other processor.
 Hence, if another processor or reads the memory Location x, it will get whatever value was there
before in that location of its own local memory.
 In these systems, all physical communication between the processors is done by passing
messages across the network that interconnects the processor.

Comparison between Loosely and Tightly Coupled system:

Basis for comparison Loosely coupled system Tightly coupled system
Basic Each processor has its own Processor have shared memory
memory module. module.
Efficient Efficient when tasks running on Efficient for high speed or real-
different processors, has minimal time processing.
interaction.
Memory Conflict It generally, do not encounter It experiences more memory
memory conflict conflicts
Inter connections Message transfer system(MTS) Interconnection networks
ISIN:- International securities
identification number.
MPIN: Mobile banking personal
identification number.
Data Rate Low High
Expensive Less expensive More expensive

4. Explain System Models in Distributed System.

Various models are used for building distributed computing system. These models can be broadly
classified into five categories.
1. Mini Computer Model
2. Workstation Model
3. Workstation-Server Model
4. Processor-Pool Model
 5. Hybrid Model

1. Mini Computer Model:-

 The minicomputer model is a simple extension of the centralized time-sharing system.
This model consists of a few minicomputers interconnected by a communication network
were each minicomputer usually has multiple users simultaneously logged on to it.
 Several interactive terminals are connected to each minicomputer.
 The early ARPA net is an example of a distributed computing system based on the
minicomputer model.

2. Work Station Model:

 A distributed computing system based on the workstation model consists of several
workstations interconnected by a communication network.
 The idea of the workstation model is to interconnect all these workstations by a high-
speed LAN so that idle workstations may be used to process jobs of users who are logged
onto other workstations & do not have sufficient processing power at their own
workstations to get their jobs processed efficiently.
Example: Xerox PARC.

3. Workstation Server Model:-

 A distributed computing system based on the workstation-server model consists of a few
minicomputers & several workstations interconnected by a communication network.
 In this model, a user logs onto a workstation called his or her home workstation. Normal
computation activities required by the user's processes are performed at the user's home
workstation, but requests for services provided by special servers are sent to a server
providing that type of service that performs the user's requested activity & returns the
 result of request processing to the user's workstation.
Example: The V-System.

4. Processor-Pool Model:-
 The processor-pool model is based on the observation that most of the time a user does
not need any computing power but once in a while the user may need a very large
amount of computing power for a short time.
 The pool of processors consists of a large number of microcomputers & minicomputers
attached to the network.
 Each processor in the pool has its own memory to load & run a system program or an
application program of the distributed computing system.
Example: Amoeba & the Cambridge Distributed Computing System.

5. Hybrid Model:
 To combine Advantages of workstation-server & processor-pool models, a hybrid model
can be used to build a distributed system.
 The hybrid model gives guaranteed response to interactive jobs allowing them to be
more processed in local workstations of the users.

5. Explain Design Issues in Distributed Operating System.

The issues in designing a distributed system include
1. Transparency:-
 Main goal of Distributed system is to make the existence of multiple computers invisible and
provide single system image to user.
 A transparency is some aspect of the distributed system that is hidden from the user.
 A transparency is provided by including some set of mechanism in the distributed system at a
layer below the interface such that a communication system appears to its users as a virtual
uniprocessor.
a. access transparency:
 Access transparency means that users should not need are be able to recognize whether a
resource (hardware or software) is remote or local.
 That is the user should allow to access remote.
  Resources in the same way as local resources.
b. Location transparency:
 The two main aspects of location transparency are i) Name transparency ii)user mobility
i) Name transparency refers to the fact that a name or resource should not reveal any hint as to the
physical location of the resource.
ii) User mobility refers to the fact that no matter which machine a user logged onto, they can be
able to access the resources with the same name.
c. Replication transparency:
 For better performance and reliability almost all distributed operating systems have the
provision to create replicas(additional copies) of files and other resources on different nodes
of the distributed systems.
d. Failure transparency:-
 Failure transparency deals with masking from the users partial failures in the system, such as
a communication link failure a machine failure or a storage device crash.
 Then a distributed operating system having failure transparency property.
2. Reliability:-
 Reliability in terms of data means that data should be available without any errors.
 Distributed system where multiple processors are available and the system become reliable.
 So on failure, a backup file is available.
3. Heterogeneity:
 Heterogeneity is applied to the network, computer hardware, operating system and
implementation of different developers.
 A key component of the heterogeneous distributed system client-server environment is
middleware.
 Middleware is a set of service that enables application and end-user to interacts with each other
across a heterogeneous distributed system.
4. Openness:
 The openness of the distributed system is determined primarily by the degree to which new
resources sharing service can be made available to the users.
 Open systems are characterized by the fact that key interfaces are published.
 It is based on a uniform communication mechanism and published interface for access to shared
resources.
 It can be constructed from heterogeneous hardware and software.
5. Scalability:- scalability of the system should remain efficient even with a significant increase in the
number of users and resources connected.
6. Security:
 Security of information system has three components confidentially integrity and availability.
 Encryption protects shared resources keeps sensitive information secrets when transmitted.
7. Concurrency;-
 There is a possibility that several clients will attempt to access a shared resources at the same
time.
 Multiple users make requests on the same resources. i.e., read, write, and update
 Each resource must be safe in a concurrent environment.

6. Goals of Distributed System

The four important goals that should be met for an efficient distributed system are as follows:
1. Connecting Users and Resources:
 The main goal of a distributed system is to make it easy for users to access remote resources and
to share them with others in a controlled way.
 It is cheaper to be a printer be shared by several users than buying and maintaining printers for
each user.
  Collaborating and exchanging information can be made easier by connecting users and resource.
2. Transparency:
 It is important for a distributed system to hide the location of its process and resource. A
distributed system that can portray itself as a single system is said to be transparent.
 The various transparencies need to be considered are access, location, migration, relocation,
replication, concurrency, failure and persistence.
 Aiming for distributed transparency should be considered along with performance issues.
3. Openness:
 Openness is an important goal of distributed system in which it offers services according to
standard rules that describe the syntax and semantics of those services.
 Open distributed system must be flexible making it easy to configure and add new components
without affecting existing components.
 An open distributed system must also be extensible.
4. Scalable:
 Scalability is one of the most important goals which are measured along three different
dimensions.
 First, a system can be scalable with respect to its size which can add more user and resources to a
system.
 Second, users and resources can be geographically apart.
 Third, it is possible to manage even if many administrative organizations are spanned.
7. Examples of Distributed System.
 A distributed system uses heterogeneous technologies and nodes are inter-connected and nodes to
communicate with each other.
General Examples of Distributed system are
 Internet
 Intranet
 Mobile networks
Internet:
The Internet is a vast interconnected collection of computer networks of many different types.
Multimedia services are available in the Internet enabling users to access audio and video data
including music, radio, TV channels, phone, and video conferencing.

Intranet: An intranet is a portion of the Internet that is separately administered and has a boundary
that can be configured to enforce local security policies.
 Mobile Computing: Technological advances in device miniaturization and wireless networking
have led increasingly to the integration of small and portable computing devices into distributed
systems.
These devices include:
 Laptop computers
 Handheld devices
 Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
 Mobile phones
 Pagers
 Video cameras
 Digital cameras
 Wearable devices
 Smart watches with functionality similar to a PDA
 Devices embedded in appliances
 Washing machines
 Hi-fi systems
 Cars
 Refrigerators

Unit-I
Important Question
Short Questions
1. Define Distributed System with neat diagram, What are the Examples
2. Advantages(Goals) and Disadvantages of Distributed System

Essay Questions
1. Explain about Tightly and Loosely Coupled System
2. Write about Design Issues in Distributed System
3. Explain System Models in Distributed System.