Distributed Algorithms, 6.852

Fall 2001

Lecture: TR 9:30-11  (4-163)

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MIT OpenCourseWare (6.852 Fall 2001)

 
Important: Students, please subscribe to the course mailing list by sending email to zivbj@mit.edu. Please include your name and email address.
Important: Solution to each HW problem must be handed in on separate sheet(s). Solutions are due before class on alternating Thursdays. (See Syllabus for the dates.)
Important: Students must participate in grading homework. Please see  information  at the bottom of this page.
FYI: You may want to use spec92.sty and 6.852.sty style files for typesetting your homework solutions in LaTeX. "spec92.sty" is Leslie Lamport's package that defines a spec environment for printing an ASCII specification. The environment is like verbatim, except that \ works as usual, and various abbreviations are defined--for example, [ ] for \Box and => for \Rightarrow. See comments in the file for info on how to use it. "6.852.sty" has some extensions to the spec environment.

Past announcements are moved to  the bottom of this page.

Staff:

Lecturer:  Prof. Nancy Lynch  lynch@theory.lcs.mit.edu NE43-366. Office Hours: After class and by appointment
TA:  Ziv Bar-Joseph  zivbj@mit.edu  NE43-441. Office Hours: W3-5
Secretary:  Joanne Talbot  joanne@theory.lcs.mit.edu NE43-366. Phone: 617 253-6054

 

Book and Supplemental Bibliography:

The main source will be the book Distributed Algorithms,by Prof. Nancy Lynch. (fourth printing)

Consult  Corrections to the Second Printing of "Distributed Algorithms" if you have the second printing of the book.

Consult  Corrections to the Third Printing of "Distributed Algorithms" if you have the third (or second) printing of the book.

Please direct any typos you find or other comments about the book to Prof. Nancy Lynch.

Below are some links to places where you can buy the book online:
Distributed Algorithms

by Prof. Nancy Lynch

(fourth printing)
 


Supplemental course bibliography: Some of the papers from the supplemental course bibliography are available online. Those that we where able to find online are listed on the supplemental course bibliography page.

Presentations slides:

1. Distributed commit protocols - Jeffrey Schneidman
2. The Paxos protocol - Dion Harmon and Jason Burns
3. Clock Synchronization - Ronilda Larson

Lecture Notes

Handouts:

1. Course Description  Postscript
2. Tentative Course Schedule  Postscript
3. Homework Assignment 1, Part a  Postscript Due on Friday, Sept. 21, at 11 in NE43-441.
4. Supplemental Bibliography  Postscript Supplemental bibliography links page
5. Homework Assignment 1, Part b  Postscript  Graders reports for HW 1
6. The Albanian Generals Problem In the course cabinet.
7. Homework Assignment 2, Part a  Postscript Due on Thursday, Oct. 4, in class.
8. Homework Assignment 2, Part b  Postscript  Graders reports for HW 2
9. Homework Assignment 3, Part a  Postscript Due on Thursday, Oct. 18, in class.
10. Homework Assignment 3, Part b  Postscript  Graders reports for HW 3
11. Sample solutions for HW2. In the course cabinet.
12. Homework Assignment 4, Part a  Postscript Due on Thursday, Nov. 1, in class.
13. Homework Assignment 4, Part b  Postscript  Graders reports for HW 4
14. Sample solutions for HW3. In the course cabinet.
15. Homework Assignment 5, Part a  Postscript Due on Thursday, Nov. 15, in class.
16. Homework Assignment 5, Part b  Postscript  Graders reports for HW 5
17. Sample solutions for HW4. In the course cabinet.
18. Homework Assignment 6, Part a  Postscript Due on Thursday, Dec. 6, in class.
19. Sample solutions for HW5. In the course cabinet.
20. Homework Assignment 6, Part b  Postscript Due on Thursday, Dec. 6, in class.

Grading:

Each student must participate in grading problem sets, probably just one, but maybe two depending on the size of the class. If you have not signed up to grade for a certain week, please do so by contacting Ziv (zivbj@mit.edu). Please check in the sign-up sheet below what weeks are available. We need eight graders for each week.
 
 HW Grading Period   Graders 
1 Thr. 9/20   - Mon.   9/24   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   - 
2 Thr. 10/4   - Wed. 10/10   X   X   X  X  X  X  X  -
3 Thr. 10/18 - Mon. 10/22  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  -
4 Thr. 11/1   - Mon. 11/5  X  X  X   X   X  X  X  
5 Thr. 11/15 - Mon. 11/19  X  X  X  X  X  X     
6 Thr. 12/6   - Mon. 12/10  X  X  X  X        

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