CS 677 Distributed Operating Systems

Spring 2018

Programming Assignment 1: Asterix and the Olympic Games (Winter Olympics Edition)

Due: Friday March 2, 2018, 23:59 hours



  • A: The problem


  • B. Evaluation and Measurement

    1. Deploy at least 6 clients, a server and an update process. They can be setup on the same machine (different directories) and have the client tablets make several requests and provide the output as part of your submission. Do the same for the server push mode.
    2. Next deploy the clients and the server such that at least some of the processes are on different machines and demonstrate that your system works over a network for both client-pull and server-push modes. You are free to develop your solution on any platform, but please ensure that your programs compile and run on the edlab machines (See note below).
    3. Conduct a few experiments to evaluate the behavior of your system under different scenarios. Change the rate at which updates are requested, or change the number of clients and measure the latencies to get a reply. In the server push mode, measure how long it takes for the server to push out an update to N clients for different values of N. Report any insights, if any, from your experiments, as to which strategies succeed the best.

  • C. What you will submit

  • When you have finished implementing the complete assignment as described above, you will submit your solution in the form of a zip file that you will upload into moodle. Please also upload everything to your github repo and tag it with "lab1_final_submission".
  • Each program must work correctly and be documented. The code file you commit to github should contain:
    1. An electronic copy of the output generated by running your program. Print informative messages when a client or server receives and sends key messages and the scores/medal tallies.
    2. A separate document of approximately two pages describing the overall program design, a description of "how it works", and design tradeoffs considered and made. Also describe possible improvements and extensions to your program (and sketch how they might be made). You also need to describe clearly how we can run your program - if we can't run it, we can't verify that it works.
    3. A program listing containing in-line documentation.
    4. A separate description of the tests you ran on your program to convince yourself that it is indeed correct. Also describe any cases for which your program is known not to work correctly.
    5. A seperate description of the tests you ran on your program to convince yourself that it is indeed correct. Include the testing code you constructed, describe the tests, inputs and outputs of the tests (and how the output shows that the test was a success). Also describe any cases for which your program is known not to work correctly.
    6. Performance results: Include a results of experiments you ran.
    7. Performance results.

  • D. Grading policy for all programming assignments

    1. Program Listing
        works correctly ------------- 50%
        in-line documentation -------- 15%
    2. Design Document
        quality of design and creativity ------------ 10%
        understandability of doc ------- 10%
    3. Use of github with checkin comments --- 5%
    4. Thoroughness of test cases and test output---------- 10%
  • Grades for late programs will be lowered 12 points per day late.

  • Note about edlab machines

  • We expect that most of you will work on this lab on your own machine or a machine to which you have access. However we will grade your submission by running it on the EdLab machines, so please keep the following instructions in mind.
  • You will soon be given accounts on the EdLab. Read more about edlab and how to access it here
  • Although it is not required that you develop your code on the edlab machines, we will run and test your solutions on the edlab machines. Testing your code on the edlab machines is a good way to ensure that we can run and grade your code. Remember, if we can't run it, we can't grade it.
  • There are no visiting hours for the edlab. You should all have remote access to the edlab machines. Please make sure you are able to log into and access your edlab accounts.

  • Stumped?

    1. Who are the Gauls? Read about them on Wikipedia.
    2. Stumped on how to proceed? Review the comic book Asterix at the Olympic Games from your local library. Better yet, ask the TA or the instructor by posting a question on the Piazza 677 questions. General clarifications are best posted on Piazza. Questions of a personal nature regarding this lab should be asked in person or via email.