6.824 Schedule: Spring 2012

Tues/Thurs, 1pm–2:30pm, 32-144

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
6 feb
Reg Day
7 feb
LEC 1: Intro: Distributed systems / Lab Overview (handout)
Preparation: Skim Frangipani
Assignment: Lab 1: Lock Server
8 feb 9 feb
LEC 2: Infrastructure: Implementing RPCs (handout)
Preparation: Read Implementing Remote Procedure Calls (Question)
10 feb
13 feb 14 feb
LEC 3: Infrastructure: Programming with threads (handout)
Preparation: Read Threads in C# (Question)
15 feb 16 feb
LEC 4: More RPC; Distributed Operating Systems (handout)
Preparation: Read Plan 9 (Question)
17 feb
Due: Lab 1
Assignment: Lab 2: Basic File Server
20 feb
President's day
21 feb
Monday Schedule
22 feb 23 feb
LEC 5: Cluster computing
Preparation: Read Piccolo (Question)
24 feb
Due: Lab 2
Assignment: Lab 3: MKDIR, UNLINK and Locking
27 feb 28 feb
LEC 6: Consistency: Sequential consistency
Preparation: Read Shared Virtual Memory (Question)
29 feb 1 mar
LEC 7: Consistency: Relaxed consistency
Preparation: Read TreadMarks (Question)
2 mar
Due: Lab 3
Assignment: Lab 4: Caching Lock Server
5 mar 6 mar
LEC 8: Consistency: Timestamps and version vectors
Preparation: Read Tra (Question)
7 mar 8 mar
LEC 9: Eventual Consistency
Preparation: Read Bayou (Question)
9 mar
ADD DATE
12 mar 13 mar
LEC 10: Fault Tolerance: Crash recovery and logging
Preparation: Read Cedar (Question)
14 mar 15 mar
LEC 11: Fault Tolerance: Two-phase commit
Preparation: Read Argus (Question)
16 mar
Due: Lab 4
Assignment: Lab 5: Caching Extent Server + Consistency
19 mar 20 mar
QUIZ 1: Mid-term quiz during lecture time
open book and notes
scope: Lectures 1–11
21 mar 22 mar
LEC 12: Fault Tolerance: Replicated state machines
Preparation: Read Hypervisor (Question)
23 mar
Assignment: Lab 6: Paxos
26 mar – 30 mar
SPRING VACATION
Due: Lab 5, Friday, March 30th, 5:00pm
2 apr 3 apr
LEC 13: Fault Tolerance: Consensus (Slides)
Preparation: Read Paxos (Question)
4 apr 5 apr
LEC 14: Case Studies: Replicated File System
Preparation: Read Harp (Question)
6 apr
Assignment: Lab 7: Replicated State Machine
9 apr 10 apr
LEC 15: Case Studies: Frangipani
Preparation: Read Frangipani (Question)
11 apr
12 apr
LEC 16: Scalable, Highly Available Storage Service
Preparation: Read Megastore (you can skip 3.1, 3.2, and 3.4) (Question)
13 apr
Due: Lab 6
16 apr
Patriots Day
17 apr
Patriots Day
18 apr 19 apr
LEC 17: Security: Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Preparation: Read Practical BFT (Question)
20 apr
23 apr 24 apr
LEC 18: Security: Untrusted servers
Preparation: Read SUNDR (Question)
25 apr
26 apr
DROP DATE
No lecture — Hacking day
27 apr
Due: Lab 7
Assignment: Lab 8: Project
30 apr 1 may
No lecture — Hacking day
Due: Project teams and description
2 may 3 may
LEC 19: Case Studies: Relaxed Consistency
Preparation: Read PNUTS (Question)
4 may
7 may 8 may
LEC 20: Peer-to-peer Systems: Dynamo
Preparation: Read Dynamo
9 may 10 may
LEC 21: Peer-to-peer Systems: Content Distribution Networks
Preparation: Read Coral (Question)
11 may
Due: Lab 8 project writeup
14 may
15 may
LEC 22: Case Studies: Anonymous routing
Preparation: Read TOR (Question)
16 may
Due: Final day for project demo meetings
17 may
Last day of classes
Demo Day, 12:05pm - 2:25pm
Preparation: Read AnalogicFS experience paper (Question)
18 may
21 may – 25 may
Final Exam Period
QUIZ 2: Thursday, May 24, 9:00AM - 11:00AM, Ice Rink


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