2025 (Current Year) 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): Ryuichi Sakamoto
Class Format: Lecture (Face-to-face)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 7-8 Tue (M-B43(H106)) / 7-8 Fri (M-B43(H106))
Class: -
Course Code: MCS.M429
Number of credits: 200
Course offered: 2025
Offered quarter: 3Q
Syllabus updated: Sep 29, 2025
Language: Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

This year, this lecture will be given in Japanese.
This lecture will introduce the architecture, communication, process, naming, consistency, security, and fault tolerance that are the foundations of distributed systems. Students will learn practical aspects of building and operating distributed systems using microservices as examples. Learn about orchestration tools and service meshes for efficient operation of microservices, and experience microservices by introducing Kubernetes and Istio. Furthermore, the course introduces the details of container and network configuration.

Course description and aims

You will be able to acquire the following skills:
1. You will learn about the architecture, processes, communications, security, etc. that support distributed systems.
2. You will be able to operate microservices.
3. You will be able to evaluate and improve the performance of distributed systems.
4. You will be able to debug and analyze distributed systems using service meshes.
5. You will be able to understand and correctly use the container virtualization and network configuration that support microservices.

Keywords

Distributed systems, microservices, fault tolerance, autoscaling, distributed tracing, Kubernetes

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Lectures will be based on slides. Network programming exercises will be conducted using VMs

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Introduction Learn the overview of distributed systems	Not specified
Class 2	Distributed architecture Learn the basics of distributed systems	Not specified
Class 3	Processes In distributed systems, there are various ways to use processes depending on the purpose. Learn the details of processes that communicate efficiently.	Network Basics Exercises
Class 4	Communication Introduce communication in distributed systems and learn how multiple distributed elements work together.	Not specified
Class 5	Introduction to network programming Learn about network programming. Create a simple server and client.	Not specified
Class 6	Name resolution Name resolution is necessary to uniquely recognize distributed resources, and learn about naming in distributed systems.	Name Resolution Exercise
Class 7	Consistency and replicas Copying and distributing data can improve reliability and performance, but it is important to ensure consistency. Learn about the placement of replicas, which are copies of data, in distributed systems and how to ensure consistency.	Not specified
Class 8	Network programming, part 2 Learn about web servers and L4 LB	Report on network programs
Class 9	Fault tolerance Introduce failures that can occur in distributed systems and learn how to deal with them.	Not specified
Class 10	Security Learn about security in distributed systems.	Not specified
Class 11	Microservices Learn about containers and microservices	Not specified
Class 12	Monitoring, management, and control of distributed systems Learn about monitoring and management of distributed systems	Distributed Systems Exercises
Class 13	Network programming, advanced 1/2 Learn about tracing	Report for Microservice
Class 14	Network programming, advanced 2/2 Learn about tracing

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)

M. van Steen and A.S. Tanenbaum, Distributed Systems, 4th ed., distributed-systems.net, 2023.
https://www.distributed-systems.net/index.php/books/ds4/

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Not specified

Evaluation methods and criteria

- Small practices
- 2 reports

Related courses

MCS.T233 ： Computer Systems
MCS.T314 ： Operating Systems

Prerequisites

Have basic knowledge of network