CS 347 offers an introduction to distributed data management. The material addressed in the course includes:

• Distributed database design
• Query processing and optimization in distributed databases
• Concurrency control and reliability
• Data replication
• Data integration
• Peer-to-peer systems
• Distributed information retireval

CS 347 is a 3-unit course that can be taken either for a letter grade or for CR/NC.

The course assumes familiarity with the functional aspects of databases (covered in CS 145) and knowledge of database system implementation techniques, including the basic understanding of transactions, concurrency control, etc. (covered in CS 245).

Lectures are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:50pm to 2:05pm in Skilling 193. The lectures are televised and available through the SCPD.

There is no required textbook for the course. However, some of the lecture topics are drawn from the following optional textbook that you might find useful to skim over: M. Tamer Özsu and Patrick Valduriez, Principles of Distributed Database Systems (Second Edition), Prentice Hall, 1999.

There will be 4 or 5 assignments that contribute a total of 20% to the final grade. There will be no programming assignment (project).

Honor code. In general, you should act according to the Stanford Honor Code and submit your own work. In particular, you may and are encouraged to discuss the topic of specific problems with others in a general way. However, you are expected to solve the problems by yourself. You are allowed to use any available inanimate source of information (in addition to the lecture notes and the textbook).

Midterm exam. The midterm exam will be given in-class on Monday, May 5. The exam is open-book, open-laptop (that is, any inanimate source of information is allowed) and is based on the material covered in the lectures Wednesday, April 30. The midterm exam contributes 30% to the final grade.

Final exam. The final exam will be on June 10 from 8:30am to 11:30am in Skilling 193. While the exam will likely be shorter than 3 hours, please do reserve the full period just in case. The final exam is open-book, open-laptop, and it contributes 50% to the final grade.