Distributed Algorithms

Master course, Fall 2016

Prerequisites: none.

Note: this course is independent from the course Concurrent Algorithms.

News

Endterm details added.
The final exam will cover everything except population protocols and FIFO links (basically, only concepts taught by Prof. Guerraoui).
Q&A sessions will be held on 23rd January (today) at CM 1 4 from 3:15pm till 6pm.
Prof. Guerraoui's new book on concurrent computing for interested readers: Concurrent computing.
Midterm grades are now published.
Exercise session for 5.12.16 will be on VS (Problem 2 in Ex08).
Midterm details added.
Links to Wandida short lectures on broadcast.
DA 2016 page is online.

Date: 28/11/2016
Time: 15:15 - 17:00
Content: Material from all courses and exercise sessions up to, and including, 21st of November.
Rooms: CM 1 1, CO3.
Room assignment: seating_midterm.pdf
Midterm grades: Midterm2016_grades.pdf

Date: 31/01/2017
Time: 08:15 - 11:15
Content: Everything except population protocols and FIFO links (basically, only concepts taught by Prof. Guerraoui).
Rooms: CE 4, CE 6
Room assignment: seating_enterm.pdf

Lecturers:
- Prof. Rachid Guerraoui, office INR 310, web page
Teaching Assistants:
- El Mahdi EL MHAMDI elmahdi.elmhamdi@epfl.ch, office INR 210, web page, office hours: Wednesdays 10:00 - 11:00 or any time by appointment
- Rhicheek Patra rhicheek.patra@epfl.ch, office INR 313, web page, office hours: Wednesdays 10:00 - 11:00 or any time by appointment
- Adrian Seredinschi dragos-adrian.seredinschi@epfl.ch, office INR 314, web page, office hours: Wednesdays 10:00 - 11:00 or any time by appointment
- Mahsa Taziki mahsa.taziki@epfl.ch, office INR 327, web page, office hours: Wednesdays 10:00 - 11:00 or any time by appointment

Rachid Guerraoui and Luis Rodrigues - Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming, available at 'La Fontaine' (with a student discount) or at amazon.de.

Christian Cachin, Rachid Guerraoui and Luis Rodrigues - Introduction to Reliable and Secure Distributed Programming

We prepared a document describing the language used for module specification and implementation, the notion of layering, and the notion of process. (odt pdf)
A Latex sample for algorithm implementation can be found here: alg-sample.tex

Note that the slides will most likely be edited as the semester progresses, so make sure you have the latest version.

Lecture	Slides	Exercises
Introduction	intro.pdf	ex01.pdf logic101.pdf sol01.pdf Logic101Solution.pdf
Reliable Broadcast	rb.pdf	ex02.pdf sol02.pdf
Causal Broadcast	cb.pdf	ex03.pdf sol03.pdf ex04.pdf sol04.pdf
FIFO Links and Gossip	fg.pdf
Total Order Broadcast	tob.pdf	ex05.pdf sol05.pdf
Consensus	consensus.pdf	ex06.pdf sol06.pdf
Atomic Commit	nbac.pdf	ex07.pdf sol07.pdf
TRB GM & VSC	TRB.pdf GM_VSC.pdf	ex08.pdf sol08.pdf
Midterm	midterm_2014.pdf midterm_2015.pdf	mt2016_sol.pdf
Applications	app.pdf
Population protocols	pp01.pdf pp02.pdf	ex09.pdf sol09.pdf
Shared memory	pp01.pdf	ex10.pdf sol10.pdf
Sample End-term quesionts	da14_endterm.pdf da15_endterm.pdf da15_final_sol.pdf

Exercises are not graded and do not count towards the final grade. However, solving them helps you better understand the course material and prepare for the final exam.

Solutions to exercises will be given during the exercise sessions one week later after the exercises were given. Also, solutions will be available on the course webpage one week later after the exercises were given.

There will be a midterm in the second half of the semester. It is not mandatory, but it may improve the final grade (see below).

The final grade will be calculated using the formula max( 1/2*<midterm> + 1/2*<final> , <final> ), where <midterm> and <final> are the results of the midterm and the final exam, respectively. The final exam and the midterm will be written and closed-book.