DISTRIBUTING COMPUTING INTRODUCTION – UNIT - 1

Question

What is Distributing Computing? How to computer programs collaborate with each

other in Distributed Computing?

A distributed system is a collection of independent computers, interconnected via a

network, that are capable of collaborating on a task. Distributed computing is computing
performed in a distributed system.

Following such ways that the computer programs, running on independent computers,
collaborate with each other to perform computing:
Network Service: A network service is a service provided by a special kind of program
known as a server on a network. The World Wide Web is such a service, as is electronic
mail (email) and file transfer (FTP).
Network Application: A network application is an application that runs on networked
computers for end users. Network applications range from enterprise applications such
as online shopping carts and electronic auction sites to noncommercial applications such
as chat-rooms and network games.

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Question

Explain different forms of Computing. [MAY-2013]

There are following such different forms of computing

1. Monolithic Computing
2. Distributed Computing
3. Parallel Computing
4. Cooperative Computing
Monolithic Computing
 A single computer, such as a personal computer (PC), is not connected to any
network, and use only the resources within its immediate access, called Monolithic
computing.
 Examples: Use of applications such as word processing program or a spreadsheet
on a pc. Mainframe can be used a Monolithic Machine.
Distribution Computing

 Distributed computing is a method of computer

processing in which different parts of a program
run simultaneously on two or more computers
that are communicating over a network.
Distributed computing is a form of parallel
computing.
 A user, using a workstation, has full use of the
resources on the local computer to which its
workstation is connected. In addition, through the interaction of the local
computer and the remote computers, the user may access resources on the
remote computers.
 Example: World Wide Web is an example of a Distributed Computing.

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Parallel Computing

 More than one processor simultaneously executes a single program, operating on

the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are
then solved in parallel.
 Parallel computing can be performed on a single computer with multiple
processors, also possible by connecting the computers in a network.
 Example: weather forecasting, biology and semiconductor design

Cooperative Computing

 Sharing computer resources and data between various types of computers and
applications is known as cooperative computing. It deals with integration of
diverse computer systems – making sure that different kinds of computers can
work together.
 The machines participating in the system can range from personal computers to
supercomputers; the network can connect machines in one building or on different
continents.
 Example: E-bay Auctioning System

Figure: Cooperative Computing

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 DISTRIBUTING COMPUTING INTRODUCTION – UNIT - 1

Question

Discuss strengths and weaknesses of Distributed Computing. [MAY-2011, DEC-2011,

DEC-2013]
Explain reasons for the popularity and most significant disadvantages of Distributed
Computing. [MAY-2012, JAN-2013]

Following such reasons for the popularity of Distributed Computing

Affordability and Availability
 Computers connected to internet has become universally available and generally
affordable, the large number of interconnected computers makes for an ideal
community for distributed computing.
Resource Sharing
 Using distributed computing, organizations can pool their resources very
effectively. The Web, for example, is a powerful platform for sharing documents
and other resources within and among organizations.
Scalability
 Distributed computing provides scalability in that increasing demand for resources
can be addressed effectively with addition of resource required.
Fault tolerance
 Distributed computing provides the opportunity for fault tolerance in that a
resource can be replicated to sustain its availability in the presence of failures.
There are following such are weaknesses / disadvantages of Distributed Computing
Multiple points of failure
 Since multiple computers are involved, all of which depend on the network for
communication, the failure of one or more computers or one or more network
links can cause trouble for distributed computing.

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Security Concerns
 In distributed computing there are more opportunities for unauthorized attack.
 The decentralization of control makes it difficult to implement and enforce security
policies, hence distributed computing is vulnerable for security breaches and
unauthorized access.

Question
Comparison between Monolithic Computing and Distributing Computing
Monolithic Computing Distributing Computing
Definition A single computer, such as a multiple computer systems
personal computer (PC) working on a single problem
Resource Applications cannot share data or Applications can share resources
Sharing other resources
Scalibility available resources are limited provide scalability in that increasing
to the capacity of one computer demand for resources can be
addressed effectively with
additional resources.
Fault Not provide any backup provides the opportunity for fault
tolerance tolerance i.e resource can be
replicated (or minored) to sustain
its availability in the presence of
failures
Application Separate, single-function Integrated applications ex. E-bay
applications, such as order-entry or system, online auction
billing

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 DISTRIBUTING COMPUTING INTRODUCTION – UNIT - 1

Question
What is port? Explain different types of port with each port number
 On the Internet, the protocol for process identification involves the use of a logical
entity known as a protocol port, or a port for short. Transport layer in the Internet
architecture is responsible for dispatching data to processes, and that two well-
known protocols are in use at this layer: TCP and UDP.
 Each of these protocols uses a separate set of ports on each host for this purpose.
A process that wishes to exchange data with another process using either TCP or
UDP must be assigned one of the ports.
 To send data to a process currently associated with port p on host H, an application
must address the data to (H, p).
 There are following some known ports with port-number
o Telnet – 23
o FTP – 21
o HTTP – 80
o SMTP – 25

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Question
Explain IPV4 addressing scheme
• An IP address is a 32-bit address that identifies a connection to the Internet. The
IP addresses are universally unique. The address space of IPv4 is 2^32or
4,294,967,296.
• IP address is written as a Binary (hexadecimal) or a Dotted-Decimal (w/out leading
zeros) notation.
• Each IP address breaks down into two parts:
• Net-id: First several bits of the IP address defining a network, also known
as class bits.
• Host-id: Identifies a host on a network.
• The IP address space (all possible IP values) is divided into five classes: A, B, C, D,
and E. Class A starts with a bit 0, Class B starts with a bit sequence of 10, Class C
with 110, Class D with 1110 and Class E with 1111. The remaining bits in each
address are used for identifying the network and the host on a particular network.
• The figure display the IP address classes

For example, suppose the dotted-decimal notation for a particular Internet address is
129.65.24.50. The 32-bit binary expansion of the notation is as follows:

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Since the leading bit sequence is 10, the address is a Class B address. Within the class, the
network portion is identified by the remaining bits in the first 2 bytes, that is,
00000101000001, and the host portion consists of the values in the last 2 bytes or
0001100000110010. So that this particular address is at network 129.65 and at host
address 24.50 on that network.
Here details for default mask address for IP Classes

What is the maximum number of networks each IPv4 address class (A, B, and C only)
can have?
 A – 128 2^(8 – 1)
 B – 16368 2^(16 – 1)
 C – 2096896 2^(24 – 1)
What is the maximum number of hosts per network each IPv4 address class (A, B, and C
only) can have?
 A – 16777216 (2^24)
 B – 65536 (2^16)
 C – 256 (2^8)

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EXERCISE
Example 1
Given the network address 17.0.0.0, find the class, the block, and the range of the
addresses.
Solution
The class is A, because the first byte is between 0 and 127. The block has a netid of 17.
The addresses range from 17.0.0.0 to 17.255.255.255.

Example 2
Given the network address 132.21.0.0, find the class, the block, and the range of
addresses.
Solution
The class is B, the block is 132.21, and the range is 132.21.0.0 to 132.21.255.255

Example 3
Given the network address 220.34.76.0, find the class, the block, and the range of
addresses
Solution
The class is C, the block is 220.34.76, and the range of addresses is 220.34.76.0 to
220.34.76.255
Example 4
Given the address 23.56.7.91, find the beginning address (network address).
Solution
The default mask is 255.0.0.0, which means that only the first byte is preserved and the
other 3 bytes are set to 0s. The network address is 23.0.0.0.
Example 5
Given the address 132.6.17.85, find the beginning address (network address).
Solution
The default mask is 255.255.0.0, which means that the first 2 bytes are preserved and the
other 2 bytes are set to 0s. The network address is 132.6.0.0

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Question
What is top-level domain and second-level domain? Explain domain name hierarchy
with example.
 The acronym DNS also expands to Domain Name Service, which refers to the
service provided by a Domain Name System.
 Every domain name contains two or more components separated by dots.
 In an address such as yahoo.com, the last component, com in this case, is called
the top-level domain. To the left of the dot in that name, yahoo in this case, is
what is called the second-level domain. It is also possible to have subdomains,
such as mail.yahoo.com.

 The second-level domain combined with the first-level domain.

 Each domain name is mapped to a corresponding IP address, although the mapping
may not be permanent. For example, the domain name ebay.com currently maps
to the IP address 216.32.120. 133.

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Question
What is URL? Explain its general form. [JAN-2013]
A URL (Uniform Resource Locators) is a naming scheme under the more general scheme
known as Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). URIs are short strings that identify
resources on the Web, including documents, images, downloadable files, services, and
electronic mailboxes.

In its most general form, the format of a URL is

<protocol>//<user>:<password>@<host-ID>:<port-number>/ <directory path>
where
<protocol> name of the application-layer protocol
<user>:<password> is for access authorization, if required by the protocol;
<host-ID> is the domain name or dotted-decimal IP address of the host that provides the
service allowing you to access the protocol; for example, www.calpoly.edu;
<part-number> is the transport-layer protocol port for the process that provides the
service on the remote host; for example, 80 (by default) for HTTP or Web servers;
<directory path> specifies where in the file systen1 of the remote host the resource can
be located; for example, ~mliu/csc102/index.html.

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Question
Explain DNS name resolution with proper example.
 The process of obtaining an Internet address from a host name is known as name
resolution.
 To perform name resolution, a database (also called a directory or a registry) must
exist containing the mappings between symbolic names and physical names.
 DNS works as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating hostname into IP
address or vise-versa. Most DNS server stores following information:
a) Hostname and their IP address
b) List of mail server and their IP address for given domain name
 When a domain name is specified-whether entered into a browser or coded in a
program being executed-the name is submitted to the nearest DNS server for
resolution. If the nearest server does not have the mapping, that server forwards
the request to another DNS server.

Example
When user type www.yahoo.com into a web browser, the application has to find
out IP address associated with www.yahoo.com. Each part of network has DNS
server or name servers. Each application send a request called dns lookup to DNS
server.

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Question
Explain architecture of distributed application
 A distributed application is an application that consists of a set of cooperating,
Interacting functional units. Reasons to distribute these functional units are
potential parallelism during the execution, fault tolerance, and inherent
distribution of the application domain (e.g., e-banking, or global supply chain
management).

 The presentation layer provides the user interface. For example if the application
is a shopping cart, this layer generates the set of web pages that are viewable by a
shopper using a browser.
 The application logic layer provides the computation for the application. This layer
is also called the business layer for enterprise applications. In a shopping cart
application, this layer is responsible for such tasks as credit verification and
computing the amounts of the orders, sales tax, and the delivery cost.
 The service layer provides the underlying services needed to support the
functionalities of the top two layers. Services may include data access facilities
(such as DBMS), directory services for name lookups (such as the domain name
search), and interprocess communication (which allows data to be exchanged
among processes).

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GTU QUESTION
1. Discuss strengths and weaknesses of Distributed Computing.
[MAY-2011, DEC-2011,DEC-2013]
2. Compare connection-oriented and connectionless IPC. [MAY-2011]
3. Explain reasons for the popularity and most significant disadvantages of
Distributed Computing. [MAY-2012, JAN-2013]
4. What is URL? Explain its general form. [JAN-2013]
5. Explain following: [MAY- 2013]
a. Monolithic Computing
b. Distributed Computing
c. Parallel Computing
d. Cooperative Computing

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