DS: Schedule

WeekCommencingLocationKey TopicsLecturesCompulsory ReadingsAdditional Readings
1

15/09/2025

(Monday)

Lecture Theatre 5 - Appleton TowerIntroduction + ArchitecturesSlidesBook: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 1 & 2 
2

22/09/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach Centre
Architecture (contd.) + Communication Slides

 

Paper: RPC Paper

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 2 & 4;

Papers:UNet; eRPC

3

29/09/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreFault ToleranceSlides, rpcgen code (in class demo), gRPC(Python)Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 8.1, 8.3

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 4 & 8

Paper: Why Do Computers Stop and What Can Be Done About It?

4

06/10/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreDistributed Storage - NFS & AFSSlides

Paper: NFS, AFS

 

 

(Only for those who do not have file systems background) Basic FileSystems Reading -- Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces -- Chapter 39, Chapter 40 

Book: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Chapter 12

Book: Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces -- Chapter 49, Chapter 50

Paper: High Availability NFS

 

5

13/10/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreDistributed Storage - AFS & GFSSlidesPaper: GFSPaper/Article: GFS: Evolution on Fast-forward
6

20/10/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreCoordination - Time & Clocks - Physical, Logical, Vector, Distributed snapshotsSlides

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 5.1, 5.2

Paper: Distributed Snapshots

Paper: Logical Clocks, Vector Clocks
7

27/10/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach Centre

(Continue) Logical, Vector Clocks, Distributed Snapshots

Leader Election, Consensus Basics

Slides

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 5.4.1, 5.4.2

 

Paper: Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty

Process

8

03/11/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentrePaxos, Raft, Mutual ExclusionSlides

Paper: Paxos, Raft

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 5.3.1 to 5.3.5

Book: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Chapter 16.4.1

Book: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Chapter 16
9

10/11/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreTransactions; Consistency & Replication - Why Replication, Data-centric Consistency ModelsSlides

Book: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Chapter 16.2, 17.3

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 7.1, 7.2

Book: Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Chapter 16 & 17
10

17/11/2025 

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreConsistency & Replication - Client-centric Consistency ModelsSlides

Paper: Baseball Paper

Book: Distributed Systems (MVS & AST), Chapter 7.3

 
11

24/11/2025

(Monday)

Bessie Watson Lecture Room - Outreach CentreTBDTBDTBDTBD

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