Analyzing Distributed Data Systems for SW Eng of Distributed Systems | Assignments Electrical and Electronics Engineering

ECEN5053 University of Colorado Fall, 2006

Homework on Distributed Data

Due Tuesday, 11:59 p.m., December 18, 2006

Obviously, I will not have this graded before the final exam. Doing this assignment, at least in

part, will help you prepare for the final because it will require you to think about pros and

cons. I will grade it if your semester grade is in need of extra credit. Otherwise, I will read it

and return it with feedback only if there is a substantial issue.

Goal:

To discuss data distribution, replication, and usage from a software engineering

perspective. To examine the software engineering process involved in selecting

appropriate data distribution technologies.

Details:

The homework assignment is to develop one of the homework problems (below) further and

produce a written characterization.

It is intended that each of the three problems can be implemented using at least two different

data distribution technologies so you have the freedom to choose how to solve the problem.

Your report should demonstrate that you understand the advantages, disadvantages, and

consequences of the choices that you make.

You may make any reasonable assumption about unspecified characteristics of the system but

all such assumptions should be documented in your report. Be frugal with long term capital

investments but do not be so miserly that the system is inefficient or unreliable.

1. Design a database of teachers in the USA that are employed by government entities (school

districts are government entities). The database is accessible in real time from any school in

which at least one of the identified teachers is working. Any authorized administrator can

change any database record for which they are responsible. This system should be locally

available in the event of network outages or disruptions insofar as is practical.

2. Port a legacy of existing IT applications for a large U. S. company that is decentralizing its

corporate offices in response to increasing concerns about single-point-of-failure opportunities

to lose all of the data (category 4 hurricane flooding, explosion, etc.) This company has an

existing collection of high-speed (192 MB/sec – is that still fast?) optical landlines between its

planned decentralization sites. The amount of legacy code is dauntingly large and anything

that can be done to simplify or automate the conversion process should be considered as

important.

3. Design the data distribution strategy for an educational self-study company that runs on the

Internet, serves four million customers per year worldwide in seven languages and has 4000

course offerings. Customers are primarily outside the USA and they will access the system

through an Internet connection, often from a library, school or business location since few will

own their own computers. The 4000 course offerings are customized by geographical region

and not all courses are available in all seven languages. Consider the bandwidth, congestion,

and network delays inherent in using the public Internet for this operation. The company

CANNOT afford to buy or lease a worldwide private network but can establish offices in other

ECEN5053 SW Eng of Distributed Systems 1 of 2

Distributed Data

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ECEN5053 University of Colorado Fall, 2006 Homework on Distributed Data Due Tuesday, 11:59 p.m., December 18, 2006 Obviously, I will not have this graded before the final exam. Doing this assignment, at least in part, will help you prepare for the final because it will require you to think about pros and cons. I will grade it if your semester grade is in need of extra credit. Otherwise, I will read it and return it with feedback only if there is a substantial issue. Goal: To discuss data distribution, replication, and usage from a software engineering perspective. To examine the software engineering process involved in selecting appropriate data distribution technologies. Details: The homework assignment is to develop one of the homework problems (below) further and produce a written characterization. It is intended that each of the three problems can be implemented using at least two different data distribution technologies so you have the freedom to choose how to solve the problem. Your report should demonstrate that you understand the advantages, disadvantages, and consequences of the choices that you make. You may make any reasonable assumption about unspecified characteristics of the system but all such assumptions should be documented in your report. Be frugal with long term capital investments but do not be so miserly that the system is inefficient or unreliable.

Design a database of teachers in the USA that are employed by government entities (school districts are government entities). The database is accessible in real time from any school in which at least one of the identified teachers is working. Any authorized administrator can change any database record for which they are responsible. This system should be locally available in the event of network outages or disruptions insofar as is practical.
Port a legacy of existing IT applications for a large U. S. company that is decentralizing its corporate offices in response to increasing concerns about single-point-of-failure opportunities to lose all of the data (category 4 hurricane flooding, explosion, etc.) This company has an existing collection of high-speed (192 MB/sec – is that still fast?) optical landlines between its planned decentralization sites. The amount of legacy code is dauntingly large and anything that can be done to simplify or automate the conversion process should be considered as important.
Design the data distribution strategy for an educational self-study company that runs on the Internet, serves four million customers per year worldwide in seven languages and has 4000 course offerings. Customers are primarily outside the USA and they will access the system through an Internet connection, often from a library, school or business location since few will own their own computers. The 4000 course offerings are customized by geographical region and not all courses are available in all seven languages. Consider the bandwidth, congestion, and network delays inherent in using the public Internet for this operation. The company CANNOT afford to buy or lease a worldwide private network but can establish offices in other ECEN5053 SW Eng of Distributed Systems 1 of 2 Distributed Data

countries. All course changes originate in the company facilities (4 in the USA, 1 in Japan), each customer has course results stored on the company’s information system and may access it anytime from any location. Homework Task: Select one of the problems described above, analyze it, and develop a characterization report that meets the criteria specified below. Since this is a homework assignment on data distribution issues, please emphasize that aspect of the problems presented. For the selected project, characterize the distributed data systems by providing appropriate information following the outline below. Because time is limited (yours AND mine :-), the report should not exceed six pages. Three pages is a reasonable size as long as the outline is fully addressed. Purpose of the Data Systems being assessed Business requirements Other requirements Concept of Operations (overview of how the solution will work) (description, constraints, etc.) Deployment timeframe Legacy interfaces and constraints Assumptions & Derived Requirements Any decisions, assumptions, or constraints imposed by the architecture team size of the data being managed (order of magnitude) approx. number of servers, number of clients, other computer resources Technology This section is the most important one and should be the most thorough. This section should demonstrate something of what you have learned from the presentation and the reading assignments. It may also reflect other material learned in prior lectures. Replication, client-server, message passing, dsm, other technologies Why was the selected technology the appropriate one? Network Specifications Hardware, protocols (briefly) Bandwidth (minimum, average, peak) Risk Analysis (You likely cannot estimate cost in dollars. Estimate it in time, impact, components to replace, types of effort associated with data replacement. In other words, identify the “Undesired outcomes” even though you cannot associate a dollar cost.) Cost of failure for each of the relevant failure modes Cost of errors (transient, permanent) Cost of security failure Other penalty issues Advantages/Disadvantages of the selected network and technology Mitigation strategy for identified disadvantages (summary) ECEN5053 SW Eng of Distributed Systems 2 of 2 Distributed Data

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