Distributed Computing, Liu Instructor’s Manual w/ Solutions

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Distributed Computing Paradigms

Presentation Suggestions

 This is a survey chapter. The key concept is abstraction, which hides the details. This
idea is important and should be reiterated throughout the course. It is fair to say that
the book is about how abstractions are provided in the large number of APIs for
distributed programming.
 Students should be required to read the material beforehand, and then encouraged to
participate in the presentation.
 Do not get bogged down on the details of each paradigm – tell your students that they
will be revisited in the rest of the book/course.
 Involve the entire class to solve the end-of-chapter exercises. Most students will find
such discussion stimulating.

How This Chapter Fits

The chapter serves as a prelude to the rest of the book. Abstraction is introduced to
familiarize the students with the idea that the same task in distributed computing can be
performed using tools that provide varying degree of detail hiding. Subsequent chapters
then expound on the paradigms.

Solutions to Chapter Exercises

There are no fixed solutions for the exercises for this chapter, as they are open-ended
questions.

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