Special Topics in Operating Systems and Distributed Storage Systems

CS599, Spring 2004

Class Information

  • Lecture Venue: THH 214
  • Lecture Time: 2:00 - 4:40pm Wednesday 

Contact Information

Links

Overview

  • Motivation: While the high performance computing cost drops, reliability, security and maintainability of computer systems still remain as challenging problems. Operating system design and implementation are crucial to address these problems. Also, for most applications, storage systems dominate the performance of computer systems and are  responsible for the safe-keeping of data.  The  recent advances in storage systems  due to storage networking magnify security and robustness problems.
  • Course Description:  The goal of the course is to expose students to current research topics and literature and recent technology trends in operating systems  and distributed file and storage systems. Topics include but not limited to: securing the operating systems, cluster computing, storage networking, distributed storage systems,  securing the file and storage systems, and data center management.  The coarse also aims to teach how to read a research paper  objectively, how to synthesize topics presented in related papers into a research topic, how to write a critical analysis of the research described in a paper, and how to evaluate a presentation. 
  • Grading:  presentation: 30 %; midterm, quizzes and participation: 30%; final: 40 %.
  • Prerequisities: CS 551 and CS 555. 
  • Presentations: Students will be assigned presentation topics and few papers. Students are expected to do their own research to understand the papers and present the assigned topic. Each student will give a 60 - 70 minute presentations. Each student will write a short evaluation of each paper assigned to the student. See the guidelines below. If the presentation on a given Wednesday, the reviews will be submitted to ozden@usc.edu by 7 pm on the previous Tuesday.  Extra points will be given to students who will identify a research problem relating to the topics presented (e.g., an extension to the paper or a shorcoming of the paper)  and directions to address this research problem. 
  • Presentation Review: Each student will be assigned to evaluate few presentatitions. Guidelines how to review a presentation is provided below. If the presentation on a given Wednesday, the reviews will be submitted to ozden@usc.edu by the following Tuesday at7 pm.
  • Exams: There will be a midterm and a final. I might also give few quizzes  to test students' knowledge. The exams will be closed book, and will cover the papers read to date, as well as topics discussed in class.
Schedule

 


Paper Reviews

You will turn in an evaluation of each paper you are assigned to. The evaluations should be sent in text format (readable by editors like vi, emacs, etc.). The evaluation for each paper should be concise. It should address the following questions (not more than few sentences per question, the shorter the better):

  • What problem does the paper address?
  • How is it different from previous work, if any?
  • What is the approach used to solve the problem?
  • How does the paper support or otherwise justify its arguments and conclusions?
  • Was the paper, in your judgement, successful in addressing the problem?
The following are useful links on how to read and evaluate a research paper:
Presentation Reviews

Each student will be asked to write an evaluation of one or few presentations given by a fellow student. This review should be concise (not more than 3/4 of a page). It should possibly address the following points (one or few sentences per point, the shorter the better):

  • Is the presentation structured well?
  • Is the time spent well? 
  • Is the presentation targeted to the audience's knowledge and interest?
  • Are the slides adequate?
  • How is the delivery?
  • Does the speaker have breadth and depth in the topic?
  • Additional suggestions to the speaker.
The following are useful links on how to present:








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