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Distributed Algorithms for Message-Passing Systems
Distributed computing is at the heart of many applications. It arises as soon as one has to solve a problem in terms of entities -- such as processes, peers, processors, nodes, or agents -- that individually have only a partial knowledge of the many input parameters associated with the problem. In particular each entity cooperating towards the common goal cannot have an instantaneous knowledge of the current state of the other entities. Whereas parallel computing is mainly concerned with 'efficiency', and real-time computing is mainly concerned with 'on-time computing', distributed computing is mainly concerned with 'mastering uncertainty' created by issues such as the multiplicity of control flows, asynchronous communication, unstable behaviors, mobility, and dynamicity.
While some distributed algorithms consist of a few lines only, their behavior can be difficult to understand and their properties hard to state and prove. The aim of this book is to present in a comprehensive way the basic notions, concepts, and algorithms of distributed computing when the distributed entities cooperate by sending and receiving messages on top of an asynchronous network. The book is composed of seventeen chapters structured into six distributed graph algorithms, in particular what makes them different from sequential or parallel algorithms; logical time and global states, the core of the book; mutual exclusion and resource allocation; high-level communication abstractions; distributed detection of properties; and distributed shared memory. The author establishes clear objectives per chapter and the content is supported throughout with illustrative examples, summaries, exercises, and annotated bibliographies.
This book constitutes an introduction to distributed computing and is suitable for advanced undergraduate students or graduate students in computer science and computer engineering, graduate students in mathematics interested in distributed computing, and practitioners and engineers involved in the design and implementation of distributed applications. The reader should have a basic knowledge of algorithms and operating systems.
While some distributed algorithms consist of a few lines only, their behavior can be difficult to understand and their properties hard to state and prove. The aim of this book is to present in a comprehensive way the basic notions, concepts, and algorithms of distributed computing when the distributed entities cooperate by sending and receiving messages on top of an asynchronous network. The book is composed of seventeen chapters structured into six distributed graph algorithms, in particular what makes them different from sequential or parallel algorithms; logical time and global states, the core of the book; mutual exclusion and resource allocation; high-level communication abstractions; distributed detection of properties; and distributed shared memory. The author establishes clear objectives per chapter and the content is supported throughout with illustrative examples, summaries, exercises, and annotated bibliographies.
This book constitutes an introduction to distributed computing and is suitable for advanced undergraduate students or graduate students in computer science and computer engineering, graduate students in mathematics interested in distributed computing, and practitioners and engineers involved in the design and implementation of distributed applications. The reader should have a basic knowledge of algorithms and operating systems.
1003 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 29, 2013
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January 30, 2014
I've just completed this book that a friend lent to me.
It's rather well-written and goes in depth on a lot of the basic (or rather foundational) concepts of distributed computing, and more advanced ones too.
It's approachable, although not as much if you have an aversion to mathematical notation, but it's possible to pull through by focusing on the pseudo code and descriptions.
An annoying thing about the book is that it never ever mentions failures, time outs, and network issues in distributed algorithms. I went the entire book thinking that nearly none of the material in there was of practical use.
Then you go to the afterword, after 470 pages of content and algorithm reading, down to the section "A Series of Books" where it is suddenly revealed to you that the book's purpose was in fact to have algorithms about failure-free asynchronous systems (these things don't really exist, they're always failure prone in some way! They're more of a mental framework to explore the algorithms themselves)
The author does recommend alternative books to get that content, but hot damn would I have liked to know about it beforehand, maybe in the preface or something, given there is one already.
This has been a huge disappointment regarding my expectations, but after learning about this point of view the book has set itself for, I can see the book doing a very good job at it. It's why I still give it 4 stars.
It's rather well-written and goes in depth on a lot of the basic (or rather foundational) concepts of distributed computing, and more advanced ones too.
It's approachable, although not as much if you have an aversion to mathematical notation, but it's possible to pull through by focusing on the pseudo code and descriptions.
An annoying thing about the book is that it never ever mentions failures, time outs, and network issues in distributed algorithms. I went the entire book thinking that nearly none of the material in there was of practical use.
Then you go to the afterword, after 470 pages of content and algorithm reading, down to the section "A Series of Books" where it is suddenly revealed to you that the book's purpose was in fact to have algorithms about failure-free asynchronous systems (these things don't really exist, they're always failure prone in some way! They're more of a mental framework to explore the algorithms themselves)
The author does recommend alternative books to get that content, but hot damn would I have liked to know about it beforehand, maybe in the preface or something, given there is one already.
This has been a huge disappointment regarding my expectations, but after learning about this point of view the book has set itself for, I can see the book doing a very good job at it. It's why I still give it 4 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review