For courses on Distributed Systems, Distributed Operating Systems, and Advanced Operating Systems focusing on distributed systems found in departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Distributed systems are common. Computer scientists and engineers need to understand how the principles and paradigms underlying distributed systems software and be familiar with several real world examples. No other book systematically examines the underlying principles and how they are applied to a wide variety of distributed systems with the depth and clarity of this presentation.

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary section.) 1. Introduction. Definition of a Distributed System. Goals. Hardware Concepts. Software Concepts. The Client-Server Model. 2. Communication. Layered Protocols. Remote Procedure Call. Remote Object Invocation. Message-Oriented Communication. Stream-Oriented Communication. 3. Processes. Threads. Clients. Servers. Code Migration. Software Agents. 4. Naming. Naming Entities. Locating Mobile Entities. Removing Unreferenced Entities. 5. Synchronization. Clock Synchronization. Logical Clocks. Global State. Election Algorithms. Mutual Exclusion. Distributed Transactions. 6. Consistency and Replication. Introduction. Data-Centric Consistency Models. Client-Centric Consistency Models. Distribution Protocols. Consistency Protocols. Examples. 7. Fault Tolerance. Introduction to Fault Tolerance. Process Resilience. Reliable Client-Server Communication. Reliable Group Communication. Distributed Commit. Recovery. 8. Security. Introduction to Security. Secure Channels. Access Control. Security Management. Example: Kerberos. Example: SEASAME. Example: Electronic Payment Systems. 9. Distributed Object-Based Systems. CORBA. Distributed COM. Globe. Comparison of CORBA, DCOM, and Globe. 10. Distributed File Systems. Sun Network File System. The Coda File System. Other Distributed File Systems. Comparison of Distributed File Systems. 11. Distributed Document-Based Systems. The World Wide Web. Lotus Notes. Comparison of WWW and Lotus Notes. 12. Distributed Coordination-Based Systems. Introduction to Coordination Models. TIB/Rendezvous. Jini. Comparison of TIB/Rendezvous and Jini. 13. Bibliography and Suggested Readings. Suggestions for Further Reading. Alphabetical Bibliography. Index.