Case Study Topics

Real-World Case Studies in Distributed Systems

(each student picks one)

1. Google Search Engine – distributed indexing and query processing.

2. Amazon E-Commerce – product catalog + recommendation engine.

3. Netflix Streaming – distributed content delivery network (CDN).

4. Facebook Social Media – user feeds and messaging.

5. Twitter/X – distributed real-time microblogging.

6. YouTube Video Platform – distributed video storage and streaming.

7. Spotify Music Streaming – distributed playlist & recommendation.

8. Uber Ride-Sharing – distributed driver-rider matching.

9. Airbnb Booking System – distributed booking and availability.

10. Daraz (or Flipkart) Online Shopping – distributed inventory + payment.

11. PayPal Payment System – secure distributed financial transactions.

12. SWIFT Banking System – global financial distributed messaging.

13. ATM Network – distributed access to bank databases.

14. Google Drive / Dropbox – distributed file storage and synchronization.

15. GitHub – distributed version control & collaboration.

16. Zoom / MS Teams – distributed real-time video conferencing.

17. WhatsApp – distributed messaging & encryption.

18. Signal – privacy-focused distributed messaging.

19. Gmail / Yahoo Mail – distributed email system.

20. Wikipedia – distributed collaborative knowledge system.

21. Khan Academy / Coursera – distributed online education platform.

22. Waze / Google Maps – distributed real-time navigation.

23. Tesla Connected Cars – distributed IoT + over-the-air updates.

24. Smart City IoT Sensors – distributed traffic & pollution monitoring.

25. NASA Space Data Systems – distributed satellite communication.

26. Blockchain (Bitcoin / Ethereum) – distributed ledger system.

27. Healthcare Systems (like eHealth Nepal, NHS UK) – distributed patient records.

28. Weather Forecasting Systems – distributed supercomputing for predictions.

 

Questions for Students to Answer

Each student should answer these about their chosen case:

1. Overview – What is the system? Who uses it?

2. Distributed Architecture – Centralized, peer-to-peer, client-server, microservices, or hybrid?

3. Components – What are the main nodes, servers, clients, and databases?

4. Data Distribution – How is data replicated, partitioned, or cached?

5. Scalability – How does the system handle millions/billions of users?

6. Fault Tolerance & Reliability – How does it recover from failures?

7. Consistency – Strong vs eventual consistency in this system.

8. Security & Privacy – How is user data protected?

9. Performance – How does it maintain low latency and high throughput?

10. Real-World Challenges – Network failures, synchronization, data locality.

11. Improvements – If you were the system designer, what would you improve?

12. Conclusion – Key learnings about distributed systems from this case.

 

Documents/Deliverables to Prepare

Each student prepares a mini case study report (8–10 pages) with:

1. Cover Page – Title, Student Name, Roll No., Case Study Chosen.

2. Introduction (1 page) – System overview.

3. Architecture Diagram (1–2 pages) – Draw the distributed architecture.

4. Detailed Analysis (3–4 pages) – Answer the 12 questions above.

5. Comparative Study (1–2 pages) – Compare with another distributed system briefly.

6. Conclusion (½–1 page) – Key findings.

7. References – Articles, papers, or documentation used.

Students should make a PowerPoint presentation (10–12 slides) to present in class.