2021 Faculty Courses School of Computing Department of Mathematical and Computing Science Graduate major in Mathematical and Computing Science
Distributed Systems
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Mathematical and Computing Science
- Instructor(s)
- Kazuyuki Shudo
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Mon / 7-8 Thu
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- MCS.T406
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
A distributed system consists of numbers of computers liaising via LAN, Internet and wireless networks. This course teaches large scale distributed systems such as Web services supported by hundreds of servers and Internet-scale systems involving millions of computers. Students learn today's and coming network computing through lectures on related technologies, cases and literature.
Course description and aims
Students learn how today's large scale distributed systems are constructed and what algorithms and technologies support them.
Keywords
Distributed systems, Internet, server-client, peer-to-peer, scale-out, logical clocks, replication, consistency models
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This course lectures on the topics referring slides and supplemental materials.
Students will have exercise assignments about three times.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Today's Internet and services on it | |
| Class 2 | Internet basics: IP address, DNS, TCP/IP | |
| Class 3 | Internet basics (cont.): 1. routing and forwarding, 2. communication protocol and standardization | Specifications of Internet and services on it. |
| Class 4 | Patterns of distributed systems | |
| Class 5 | Peer-to-peer: patterns of peer-to-peer systems | |
| Class 6 | Peer-to-peer (cont.): content distribution | |
| Class 7 | Scaling-out: scaling-up and scaling-out | |
| Class 8 | Scaling-out (cont.): scaling-out techniques and examples | |
| Class 9 | Scaling-out (cont.): distributed hash tables | Investigation on scaling-out techniques. |
| Class 10 | Clocks and synchronization: real world, global and logical clocks | |
| Class 11 | Clocks and synchronization (cont.): logical clocks and their applications | |
| Class 12 | Replication and consistency models: replica management, updating protocols | |
| Class 13 | Replication and consistency models: consistency models | Synchronization techniques, and possibility and anxiety of computational clouds. |
| Class 14 | Future Internet |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None
Reference books, course materials, etc.
This course supplies supplemental materials during lectures.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Based on answers to exercises.
Related courses
- CSC.T441 ： Internet Infrastructure
Prerequisites
None