BIT3263 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
Mid Term Examination
Faculty : Information and Communication Technology
Date/Day :01/04/2019
Duration : 2 hours
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATE
1. This examination is worth 20% of the overall semester assessment.
2. The total number of marks available for this examination is 80.
3. This examination paper contains two (2) sections in three (3) pages including the cover
page.
INSTRUCTION TO CANDIDATE
1. Answer ALL questions in Section A and B.
2. Write all your answers in the answer booklet provided.
3. If you made a mistake, please put a single diagonal line through the section you wish to
be ignored by the examiner.
4. Return all examination papers and scripts upon completion of the examination including
any workings.
Feb-June 2019
Mid-Term Examination
BIT3263 Distributed Systems
Section A Answer all questions [30 Marks]
1. The statements that follow need to be validated. Use the words True (T) or False
(F) to validate them. [15]
a. Cloning affects both the state and the proxies.
b. RMI parameters and return values cannot be objects.
c. Local objects are passed by reference while remote objects are passed by
value.
d. The stub procedure behaves like a remote procedure to the client, but
instead of executing the call, it marshals the procedure identifier and the
arguments into a request message, which it sends via its communication
module to the server.
e. A server has many dispatchers and many skeletons for each class
representing a remote object.
f. CORBA is a standard defined by the Object Management Group designed
to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse
platforms.
g. The higher level abstractions provided by the middleware layer are
independent of the underlying operating systems.
h. In flat groups, all processes are equal, fully asymmetric. There is a single
point of failure and the decisions are complicated.
i. The term mobile code is used to refer to program code that cannot be
transferred from one computer to another and run at the destination.
j. Whereas layering deals with the horizontal organisation of services into
layers of abstraction, tiering is a technique to organise functionality of a
given layer and place this functionality into appropriate servers and, as a
secondary consideration, on to virtual nodes.
k. Each servant class extends the corresponding skeleton class and
implements the methods of an IDL interface using the method signatures
defined in the equivalent Java interface.
l. An operating system such as UNIX (and its variants, such as Linux and
Mac OS X) or Windows (and its variants, such as XP, Vista and Windows
7) provides the programmer with, for example, disk blocks rather than
files, and with raw network access rather than sockets.
m. There are distributed operating systems in general use, such as UNIX,
Mac OS and Windows. This is likely to remain the case.
n. Threads within a process may share data and other resources
inconveniently and inefficiently compared with separate processes.
o. Application level transparency determines whether the system can be
extended in various ways. It is mainly determined by the degree to which
new resource sharing services can be added and availed for use.
2. Explain the following terms as applied in distributed systems. Include examples in
your explanations. [6]
a. Distributed system
b. Performance transparency
Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Faculty of Information and Communication Technology 2
Feb-June 2019
Mid-Term Examination
BIT3263 Distributed Systems
3. Distinguish a failure from a fault and fault tolerance. Include an example for each
term. These examples must be relevant to any distributed system. [9]
Section B Answer all questions [50 Marks]
1. Distributed systems are undergoing a period of significant change and this can be
traced back to a number of influential trends. Mention two (2) of these trends. [2]
2. Thoriso, the Chief Information Officer of Post Bank is working on a proposal to the
bank’s executives regarding the employment of distributed systems for all the
branches across the country. Answer the questions below in order to assist Thoriso
to come up with a strong proposal.
a. Convince the executives to support this idea, discuss five (5) reasons for
having distributed systems. [10]
b. Describe three (3) consequences that Thoriso should be mindful of when
recommending distributed computing at Post Bank. [6]
c. Discuss any three (3) security mechanisms that Thoriso needs to
recommend in the deployment of Post Bank’s distributed system. [6]
d. Excluding security, explain four (4) architectural requirements that Thoriso
must suggest to the executives to ensure dependability of Post Bank’s
distributed system. [8]
3. “Alibaba” is an online shopping website that is globally accessed. Its customers can
connect their computers to its computer (web server) to browse and buy clothing,
furniture, jewelry, cutlery, etc. Which distributed systems challenges will “Alibaba”
face if: [3]
i. Alibaba allows the movement of resources and clients within its system without
affection the operation of users or applications.
ii. Alibaba hides the coordination required to satisfy the transactional properties of its
operations.
iii. Customers use completely different hardware and different operating systems
(Windows, Linux, etc.).
4. Illustrate five (5) core functionalities of an operating system. [5]
5. Using diagrams, differentiate between the Network Operating System (NOS),
Multicomputer Operating System and Distributed Operating System (DOS). [10]
Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Faculty of Information and Communication Technology 3
