Computer Science Department
College of Arts and Sciences

Seminar on Real-Time Computation and Communication
With Emphasis on Applications in Large-Scale Information Systems


Overview:

Research in real-time computing and communication has traditionally been limited to special-purpose systems. Examples include sensory-motor robotics, command-and-control systems, and avionics. Due to their "embedded", "mission-critical", and "small-scale" nature, such systems could be engineered using a predictable infrastructure (e.g. dedicated hardware and special purpose kernels and operating systems) in such a way so as to satisfy their timing constraints (e.g. deadlines, temporal constraints, and jitter characteristics).

Over the last few years, there have been an avalanche of real-time applications that do not fit the above-mentioned mold. Examples of such applications include electronic commerce, ad servers and networks, real-time financial and brokerage services, real-time video and audio streaming, multicasting and group communication, among others. The environments that host these emerging applications (e.g. the WWW, intranets, etc.) are not predictable enough to apply traditional real-time resource management techniques. More importantly, these environments are not under the control of a single application, which makes it rather impossible to expect that any special-purpose protocol or design methodology could be enforced.

In this seminar we will explore the opportunities and challenges involved in providing real-time Quality of Service guarantees in such large-scale distributed information systems. The emphasis of the seminar will be on exposing the participants to the current research issues (especially those pursued within the RTCC group at BU) and on identifying potential research topics in Real-Time Computing and Communication as it applies to Large-Scale Distributed Information Systems.

Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and to present summaries of their independent readings/projects to the class. A final individual/group project report or paper (of publishable quality) will be required of all students taking this seminar.


Prerequisites:

Consent of Instructor (obtained prior to first day of classes).


Instructor:

    Name: Prof. Azer Bestavros
   Email: best@cs.bu.edu
  Office: MCS-276 (ext: 3-9726)
   Hours: Tue 2:00pm-3:30pm (or by appointment)


Class Meeting: (Time and Place subject to change if need be)

    Time: Tuesdays 3:30pm-6:00pm
   Place: MCS-135 


Course Archives:


Other Resources:


Created on: October 1, 1997
Updated on: October 21, 1997
Maintainer: Azer Bestavros