MSc CS @ RDNC — Class of 2006 – 07

Striking a pose! The class of 06-07!

M.Sc. CS Students at the DCS, R.D.National College on 14 August 2006

The students of M.Sc. Part I and Part II are all smiles on the eve of course-completion on Monday.

Here’s wishing them the best in their subsequent courses and all future endeavors!

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Distributed Computing: Handouts for Day 12 Posted

The handouts for the topics covered on Day 12 – Security – are now posted online.

The remainder of the handouts will be posted over the course of this weekend.

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MSc @ RDNC: Lectures Resume 24th July 2006

DC and AI Lectures will resume from Monday, 24 July 2006.

Be there at 8:30 am!

MSc @ RDNC: 20/07, 21/07, 22/07 : Lectures Cancelled

The DC and AI lectures for Thursday 20/07/2006, Friday 21/07/2006, and Saturday 22/07/2006  are cancelled.

Students are advised to ascertain their revised schedule from the Department.

Distributed Computing – Unit 4 – Review Questions

Batch A

1. Define the following terms:
   1. Access point
   2. Address
   3. True identifier
   4. Location independent name
   5. Human-friendly name
2. What is the need for location independent names?
3. What is a namespace? Explain how a namespace can be represented as a labeled, directed graph with two types of nodes.
4. Define the following terms:
   1. Leaf node
   2. Directory node
   3. Directory table
   4. Root node
   5. Path name
   6. Absolute path name
   7. Relative path name
   8. Global name
   9. Local name
   10. Boot block
   11. Superblock
   12. Inode
5. Write a short note on name resolution. Discuss the necessity of a closure mechanism for name resolution.
6. Explain the concept of an alias. Elaborate on its importance in linking and mounting.
7. What information is necessary to mount a foreign name space in a distributed system?
8. Explain the differences between a Network File System (NFS) and a Global Name Service (GNS).
9. Write a short note on the structure of namespace distribution.
10. What is a name resolver? Explain its importance in the implementation of name resolution.
11. Distinguish between iterative name resolution and recursive name resolution.
12. Explain the organization of the DNS name space.
13. Define the following terms:
    1. Domain
    2. Domain name
    3. Resource record
    4. Canonical name
14. Describe the implementation of DNS.
15. Explain in detail the principle and implementation of the X.500 directory service.

Batch B

1. Explain the lookup of a mounting point in UNIX-like systems.
2. Can an identifier contain information on the entity it refers to?
3. Distinguish between a hard link and a soft link in UNIX-like systems.
4. Name servers implementing nodes in the DNS name space that are close to the root do not generally support recursive name resolution. Why?
5. Write a short note on IP anycast.

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