6.824 Schedule: Spring 2009

Tues/Thurs, 11am–12:30pm, 36-153

Here is the tentative schedule for lectures, quizzes, and lab deadlines. All information is subject to change.

For the benefit of students who wish to preview the material to be covered in future weeks, links to last year's lecture notes and paper questions appear below. This year's questions will be posted at least two days before they are due, and updated lecture notes will be posted after each lecture.

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
2 feb
Reg Day
3 feb
LEC 1: Intro: Distributed systems / Lab Overview
Preparation: Skim Frangipani
Assignment: Lab 1: Lock Server
4 feb 5 feb
LEC 2: Infrastructure: Implementing RPCs
Preparation: Read Implementing Remote Procedure Calls (Question)
6 feb
9 feb 10 feb
LEC 3: Infrastructure: Programming with threads
Preparation: Read Threads in C# (Question)
11 feb 12 feb
LEC 4: Distributed programming: Remote Objects
Preparation: Read Java Remote Method Invocation (Question)
13 feb
Due: Lab 1
Assignment: Lab 2: Basic File Server
16 feb
President's Day
17 feb
Monday schedule
18 feb 19 feb
LEC 5: Distributed programming: MapReduce and Dryad
Preparation: Read DryadLINQ paper (Question)
20 feb
Due: Lab 2
Assignment: Lab 3: Reading, Writing, and Sharing Files
23 feb 24 feb
LEC 6: Consistency: Sequential consistency
Preparation: Read Shared Virtual Memory (Question)
25 feb 26 feb
LEC 7: Consistency: Relaxed consistency
Preparation: Read TreadMarks (Question)
27 feb
Due: Lab 3
Assignment: Lab 4: MKDIR, REMOVE, and Locking
2 mar 3 mar
LEC 8: Consistency: Timestamps and version vectors
Preparation: Read Tra (Question)
4 mar 5 mar
LEC 9: Eventual Consistency
Preparation: Read Bayou (Question)
6 mar
ADD DATE
Due: Lab 4
Assignment: Lab 5: Caching Lock Server
9 mar 10 mar
LEC 10: Fault Tolerance: Crash recovery and logging
Preparation: Read Cedar (Question)
11 mar 12 mar
LEC 11: Fault Tolerance: Two-phase commit
Preparation: Read Argus (Question)
13 mar
16 mar 17 mar
QUIZ 1: Mid-term quiz during lecture time
open book and notes
scope: Lectures 1–10
18 mar 19 mar
LEC 12: Fault Tolerance: Replicated state machines
Preparation: Read Hypervisor (Question)
20 mar
Due: Lab 5
Assignment: Lab 6: Caching Extent Server + Consistency
23 mar – 27 mar
SPRING VACATION
30 mar 31 mar
LEC 13: Fault Tolerance: Consensus
Preparation: Read Paxos (Question)
1 apr 2 apr
LEC 14: Case Studies: Frangipani
Preparation: Read Frangipani (Question)
3 apr
Due: Lab 6
Assignment: Lab 7: Paxos
6 apr 7 apr
LEC 15: Peer-to-peer Systems: Finding data
Preparation: Read Chord (Question)
8 apr
9 apr
LEC 16:Peer-to-peer Systems: Content Distribution Networks
Preparation: Read Coral (Question)
10 apr
13 apr
14 apr
LEC 17: Security: Data integrity and confidentiality
Preparation: Read Shark (Question)
15 apr 16 apr
LEC 18: Security: Untrusted servers
Preparation: Read SUNDR (Question)
17 apr
Due: Lab 7
Assignment: Lab 8: Replicated State Machine
20 apr
Patriots Day
21 apr
Patriots Day
22 apr
23 apr
DROP DATE
No lecture — Hacking day
24 apr
Assignment: Lab 9: Project
27 apr 28 apr
LEC 19: Security: Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Preparation: Read Practical BFT (Question)
Due: Project teams and description
29 apr
Due: Lab 8
30 apr
LEC 20: Case Studies: Anonymous routing
Preparation: Read TOR Design (Question)
1 may
4 may 5 may
LEC 21: Case Studies: Botnets
Preparation: Read Spamalytics (Question)
6 may 7 may
No lecture — Hacking day
8 may
Due: Lab 9 project writeup
11 may
12 may
LEC 22: Case Studies: Relaxed Consistency
Preparation: Read PNUTS (Question)
13 may
Due: Final day for project demo meetings
14 may
Last day of classes
Demo Day
Preparation: Read AnalogicFS experience paper (Question)
15 may
18 may – 22 may
Final Exam Period: QUIZ 2: Wednesday, May 20, 9:00AM – 12:00PM, Walker


For questions or comments, email 6.824-staff@pdos.csail.mit.edu.
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