Explain what a distributed system is, why a computer system should be designed as a distributed system, and what the desired properties of such systems (transparency, scalability, openness) are.
List the principles underlying the functioning of distributed systems, identify the problems and challenges associated with these principles.
Explain properties of distributed algorithms.
Explain different software architectures used in distributed systems (e.g., client-server, multi-tier, peer-to-peer, structured, unstructured, object-based, data-centered)
Design and build distributed system software using both basic OS mechanisms (e.g., primitives for communication, multi-threading, concurrency etc.) and higher-level middleware services (e.g., RPC, RMI, message passing, queuing systems, etc.)
Develop distributed programs that communicate via remote method invocation (RMI) or equivalent communication technologies.
Explain the importance of efficient naming schemes in distributed systems
Identify possible synchronization problems in a distributed system and describe appropriate solutions to them
Describe how consistency and replication affect distributed system design, identify possible resulting problems and corresponding solutions
Explain what fault tolerance is, why it is needed in distributed systems,
Identify the security problems in distributed systems, list a set of security primitives that can be utilized in addressing security issues distributed systems such as access control, delegation, authentication, authorization