Modern computer systems commonly rely on distributed and cloud computing systems, which enable seamless access to networked resources such as processors, data stores, sensor networks, cyber-physical systems, and multimedia services. In this unit, you will gain foundation knowledge, and an understanding of the system models and their enabling technologies. You will learn the core concepts of distributed computing, such as interprocess communication, concurrency and synchronisation, transactions and concurrency control as well as distributed databases and files. This unit also exposes you to distributed system characteristics of scalability, heterogeneity, security, and failure handling. The areas of mobile and ubiquitous computing and the social impact arising from the ubiquity of distributed systems will also be explored. You will learn to develop secure and reliable distributed computing applications and web services that can perform concurrent operations across multiple computers.

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Unit Coordinator reflection and teaching team feedback

The technology-related contents of this unit including the textbook are outdated and don't follow the current industry technology trends.

Replace the current textbook and introduce the implementation of theoretical concepts such as "consensus systems", "secure interprocess communications", and "load-balancing" techniques.

Feedback from Student feedback

Some contents are difficult to understand and there aren't enough resources to explain the content.

Revise unit materials and provide more real-life examples to help students understand the applicability of contents in real-life situations.