Distributed Algorithms Contents Index

Basics: Review

Answer these questions to review the webpage on Basics.

A distributed system consists of a set of agents and a set of channels.

  1. What is an agent? Give an example.
  2. What is the state of an agent in the example?
  3. What is a channel?
  4. What is the state of a channel?
  5. When does the state of an agent change?
  6. Describe how the state of a channel changes.
  7. What are the restrictions on a receive function of an agent?
  8. The parameters of a receive function are the message that arrived and the sender of the message. Why is it helpful for the receiver to have information about the sender of the message?
Next
States of a Distributed System.

Frequenty Asked Questions

K. Mani Chandy, Emeritus Simon Ramo Professor, California Institute of Technology