SATHYABAMA UNIVERSITY

(Established under section 3 of UGC Act,1956)

Course & Branch :M.Tech - W-IT
Title of the Paper :Distributed Computing Max. Marks :80
Sub. Code :683201-783201 Time : 3 Hours
Date :07/12/2009 Session :FN
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PART - A (6 x 5 = 30)
Answer ALL the Questions
1. What is an Idempotent Operation? Which of the following
operations are Idempotent, and justify them.
(a) read_record (filename, record_number)
(b) increment (variable_name)
(c) add (integer_1, integer_2)
(d) read_next_record (filename)
(e) seek (filename, position)
2. What is a stub? How are stubs generated? Explain how the use of
stubs help in making an RPC mechanism transparent.
3. Discuss the similarities and differences between the following
parameter passing semantics that may be used in an object based
systems.
(a) call by object reference (b) call by move (c) call by visit
4. What are the main causes of Trashing in a DSM System? What
are the commonly used methods to solve the Thrashing problem
in a DSM system?
5. Explain how the Bully algorithm works to select a coordinator
process from among the currently running process.

6. Explain the issues in designing a Thread Package.

PART – B (5 x 10 = 50)
Answer ALL the Questions
7. What are the major issues in designing a Distributed Operating
Systems? Explain any two of them in detail.
(or)
8. (a) Explain Consistent and Casual Ordering with neat diagrams.
(b) Explain various types of Buffering used in Distributed
Computing.
9. Explain the steps in creating an RPC application in Sun RPC with
possible code.
(or)
10. Explain the various communication protocols used for RPC.

11. Explain the different Strategies used to improve Sequential

Consistency Model.
(or)
12. (a) How is distributed approach used for maintaining Mutual
Exclusion among the competing processes?
(b) Explain the Logical Clocks concept and also state how the
logical clock can be implemented.
13. With a suitable example, explain the working of the Optimal
Assignment of the task to the processors.
(or)
14. (a) What are the main issues involved in designing a Process
Migration facility for a Heterogeneous Distributed System?
(b) Explain the working of Load Balancing approach used for
Resource Management.
15. (a) Explain the schemes of File Caching. (6)
(b) Write about Write-ahead Log approach used in Atomic
Transactions. (4)
(or)
16. List the fundamental terminologies and concepts of Naming in
detail.