Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming [Hardcover]

Rachid Guerraoui (Author), Luís Rodrigues (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2006 | ISBN-10: 3540288457 | ISBN-13: 978-3540288459 | Edition: 1

In modern computing a program is usually distributed among several processes. The fundamental challenge when developing reliable distributed programs is to support the cooperation of processes required to execute a common task, even when some of these processes fail.

Guerraoui and Rodrigues present an introductory description of fundamental reliable distributed programming abstractions as well as algorithms to implement these abstractions. The authors follow an incremental approach by first introducing basic abstractions in simple distributed environments, before moving to more sophisticated abstractions and more challenging environments. Each core chapter is devoted to one specific class of abstractions, covering reliable delivery, shared memory, consensus and various forms of agreement.

This textbook comes with a companion set of running examples implemented in Java. These can be used by students to get a better understanding of how reliable distributed programming abstractions can be implemented and used in practice. Combined, the chapters deliver a full course on reliable distributed programming. The book can also be used as a complete reference on the basic elements required to build reliable distributed applications.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"This book deals with distributed systems. But unlike all other books in this area it treats the subject from a modular, specification viewpoint and not from the classical algorithmic view point. … This book is very remarkable, because it marks a change in attitude within computer science." (Jan Friso Groote, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1095 (21), 2006)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (April 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540288457
• ISBN-13: 978-3540288459
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Well presented, practical and useful, December 20, 2010

By 

Jayaram KR (W Lafayette, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming (Paperback)

This is a very good book on distributed algorithms. I've used this book as a student (of Distributed Algorithms), as a PhD student (for my research), a teaching assistant and as a software developer.

This book focusses on the *fundamentals* of reliable asynchronous distributed systems -- abstractions, consistency, broadcast, shared memory and consensus. The intention seems to make the reader gain a deep understanding of a small number of topics, rather than an overview of all programs distributed. To that end, it is very useful to readers who want to develop distributed systems infrastructure (a.k.a "back-ends") and undergraduate/graduate computer science/engineering students.

The presentation is also very good -- as a teaching assistant, I've had both undergrad and grad students use this book, and they found it easy to read, and in many cases, improved their performance in subsequent exams.

If you're looking for web services, RMI, cryptography, protocols (SOAP etc.), systems architecture, web caching, BigData stuff (Mapreduce, Pig, etc) this is not the book for you.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars abstractions and algorithms, June 20, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming (Hardcover)

The book is about abstractions and algorithms for distributed programming. Arguably, the abstractions are considered to be at least as important as the algorithms. The abstractions effectively are assumptions that let you push down certain details into lower level code. A very modular approach that allows for a solid object oriented design.

Notably, you should not have to worry about the semantics of pushing bytes from one machine to another. Network programming is now so well established that you won't have to write code to move a byte set. So there is a stable, debugged network protocol stack. (Not necessarily TCP/IP, to be sure.)

The algorithms in the book can then focus on such matters as how to distribute data and collect results across a network of machines. Very importantly, to also detect when a machine might have timed out or otherwise generated a failure.