What is the Distributed Systems Discussion Group about?

• The Distributed Systems Discussion Group (DS-DG) is an opportunity to discuss interesting research topics with members of our group and fellow students. We analyze current developments and trends in research. This discussion group focuses on:
  • (New) network architectures
  • Systems, stacks, kernels, simulation ...
  • Peer-to-Peer networks
  • Sensor networks
• The DS-DG is voluntarily and no official class course at RWTH. Thus, you cannot receive credit points for participation. However, it is a wonderful change to get deeper insights into current developments and ongoing research. Furthermore, it is a nice opportunity to get in touch with students, research assistants, and professors who are active in this field of research.
• Participation is a good chance to identify and prepare your topic for a seminar, Bachelor's or Master's thesis.
• The DS-DG meetings consist of a short presentation of a hot research topic followed by an informal in depth discussion of this topic. What's important about the topic? How did the authors solve the problems at hand? Do we agree with these solutions? Is there any design space for alternative solutions? Are there any "follow-up problems"?

Who can join the discussion group?

• Everybody! There are no formal requirements which have to be fulfilled in order to participate. However, a some understanding of communication systems, network architecture, and Peer-to-Peer networks helps you understand and participate actively in the discussions. Attending (or having attended) lectures, seminars or labs from our group provides you with such knowledge.

Organizational Information

• Contact: Klaus Wehrle, Tobias Heer, Olaf Landsiedel
• If you are interested in announcements relevant this discussion group, feel free to subscribe to our DS-DG mailing list.
• You don't have to attend the DS-DG on a regular basis. Just drop in whenever you can manage.

Dates

• We meet on Thursdays (starting from the 19th of April) from 15:00h to 16:30h in the I4 seminar room E1-4105 (Informatikzentrum, Chair for Computer Science IV).
• Important: DS-DG meetings take place on an irregular basis. Meetings are announced on the mailing list.

Previous topics

• Naming and Addressing
• Caching in Distributed Hash Tables
• DHT routing: Some open questions
• DHTs in mobile Ad-Hoc Networks
• Virtual Ring Routing (VRR)
• Routing on Flat Labels (ROFL)
• The Host Identity Protocol
• Why the Internet only just works?
• Click Modular Router

Possible future topics

• Internet scalability limits: The hot router problem
• Data consistency in dynamic networks
• Trust in totally decentralized, unmanaged systems
• Security in DHTs
• Overlay routing in the underlay network