Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division

Second Semester 2018-2019
Mid-Semester Test (EC-2 Make-up)

Course No. : IS ZC446

Course Title : DATA STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES & NETWORKS
Nature of Exam : Closed Book
Weightage : 35% No. of Pages =1
Duration : 2 Hours
No. of Questions = 7
Date of Exam : 23/03/2019 (FN)
Note:
1. Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.
2. All parts of a question should be answered consecutively. Each answer should start from a fresh page.
3. Assumptions made if any, should be stated clearly at the beginning of your answer.

Q.1 (a) How SCSI bus protocol enhance performance for large data transfers with long
delays? Explain.
Q.1 (b) What are the limitations of synchronous bus? How these limitations are overcome by
asynchronous buses? [2 + 3 = 5]

Q.2. Answer the following questions: [2 * 3 = 6]

(a) What techniques are used in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) for
achieving high I/O rate and fault tolerance?
(b) How RAID 5 offers superior performance than RAID 4? Explain.
(c) What are the limitations of software RAID as compared to hardware RAID?

Q.3. The conventional network file systems such as NFS and FTP do not perform well for I/O
intensive applications like video processing. Explain the reason for this. How Direct
Access File System (DAFS) overcome by the limitation imposed by conventional file
systems? Explain. [5]

Q.4 (a) In general, disk defragmentation process improves the R/W performance. But
defragmentation on Solid State Devices is not recommended? Explain the reason
behind this. [2]
Q.4 (b) How does file fragmentation is different from disk fragmentation? Explain with
suitable example. [2]

Q.5. In GFS (Google File System) a client wants to modify some portion of the data in a file.
Explain the data modification process in brief. [4]

Q.6 (a) Argue the pros and cons of using SSD memory as a disk cache versus as an extended
RAM. [3]
Q.6 (b) Why a log structured file system is most suitable for FLASH memory? Explain. [4]

Q.7. A disk drive spins at 10000 RPM, has 4096 cylinders and 8 platters. Data is recorded on
both the surfaces of each platter. Each track contains 2048 sectors and each sector stores
1024 bytes.
(a) How much time it will take to read data from 10 consecutive sectors of a track?
Assume R/W head is already over the desired track.
(b) Find the total capacity of the disk in Giga Bytes? [3 + 1 = 4]

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