CSC3121 : Distributed Systems
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Paul Ezhilchelvan
- Owning School: Computing
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 10 |
| ECTS Credits: | 5.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
To explain how concepts and techniques from computer networking, operating systems, and object-oriented programming can be combined to develop distributed systems.
The course will cover:
• The underlying theory of event ordering.
• Logical and physical clocks.
• The practical aspects of distributed system structuring using the client-server approach.
Outline Of Syllabus
• Structuring distributed applications: using client-server and remote procedure calls.
• How atomic transactions, with their 'ACID' properties provide a reliable way of sharing of information.
• Design challenges in remote procedure calls and in realizing ACID properties.
• The solutions commonly deployed to address these challenges, together with their conceptual underpinnings.
• Ordering of events: using logical and physical clocks.
• Practical aspects: analysing a distributed system design and designing a total order delivery system.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 14 | 1:00 | 14:00 | 14 hours preparation on assessment. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Lectures (in person). |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 12:00 | 12:00 | Exam revision and completion of exam. |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 10 | 1:00 | 10:00 | Recorded lectures (10). |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 4 | 1:00 | 4:00 | Guidance on assessments (in person). |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured non-synchronous discussion | 8 | 1:00 | 8:00 | Support for assessment and deep learning. |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 41 | 1:00 | 41:00 | Guidance through structured discussions. |
| Total | 100:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Techniques and theory are presented in lectures.
Assessments seek to provide students with the experience of applying concepts and algorithms in solving challenging design problems. Experience from interacting with middleware and graph DB companies would be used to show how taught concepts are applied in practice, e.g., in distributed ledger (aka blockchain) and database systems.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Exams
| Description | Length | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written Examination | 90 | 1 | A | 100 | Closed book examination. |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prob solv exercises | 1 | M | Investigating and criticising a given system design for application scenarios 800 words (maximum). |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The assessments are designed to test the students' knowledge as well as understanding of the concepts and techniques that underpin the organisation of distributed computing.
Coursework will particularly emphasise the importance of causal order related issues in the design of distributed systems and crash-tolerance in client-server systems. For example, it will describe an application scenario and require the student to reason why the system design is flawed.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- CSC3121's Timetable