Introduction to Distributed Systems

A distributed system is…

“… a system in which the failure of a computer you didn’t know existed can render you own computer unusable” – Leslie Lamport mutiple computers communication via a network trying to achieve some task together Consists of “nodes”

Why?

1. It’s inherently distributed
2. For better reliability
3. For better performance
4. To solve bigger problems

Why not?

1. Communication may fail
2. Processes may crash
3. All of this may happen non-deterministically
4. Fault tolerance: hard to archive

Networking

node 1 —————> node 2

1. Various network operators: home DSL, cellular data. wifi
2. Physical communication: electric current, radio waves, laser