Final Examination

CSci 555 / Neuman Fall 1995
Directions for completing exam

Answer the following two questions:

1. (45 points total) Your company just received a contract to provide computing support for the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. You must design a system that will be used to track NATO troop deployment and provide logistic support for the forces, including the input and processing of requests for equipment, supplies, repair, construction, and limited intelligence gathering. The system will be used by multiple military and relief organizations, each of which will have their own legacy system for maintaining information related to their own activities. For this system, answer the following questions:
   1. (10 points) What are the security threats to the system? What kinds of attacks are likely? Where are the potential points from which an attacker might conduct such attacks?
   2. (20 points) For each threat identified in A, what techniques might you apply in the design of the system to address the threats? Explain how the technique addresses the threat, or alternatively, argue that the threat cannot be practically addressed. Consider policy solutions as well as purely technical solutions. If you impose a policy solution, argue that the policy is practical for the environment described in the problem.
   3. (15 points) What approaches are possible for integrating information and services from the existing systems of the participating organizations? Which approach(es) would you use? Why?

2. (55 points total)

   After much hype and an initial public stock offering, MicroScape Communications Corporation has raised 17 Billion Dollars in capital to finance development of a new computer operating system and application environment that they claim will rapidly replace all existing operating systems and provide the base needed to run all of the applications anyone might care to run for the next century. If such claims were practical, and assuming you accepted a job with this company to design their system, answer the following questions about your design and justify your choices:

   1. (10 points) How would you structure the kernel? What services will be provided by the kernel, what services will be provided by servers outside the kernel, and what services will be provided by application libraries? Why would you structure the kernel this way?
   2. (10 points) How would you distribute the functions of the system across the different processors in the system? Would you have a single distributed kernel, multiple independent kernels, or a combination of the two approaches? What about non-kernel functions? Why would you distribute the functions of the system in this manner?
   3. (25 points) What are the scalability issues that must be addressed to provide such a system that will ``tie together all of the world's computers into a single system''? Consider the effect of scale on naming and security, as well as other parts of the system. How would you address these problems? What new problems are introduced by your solution, and how would you address those? Iterate (i.e. keep solving the new problems introduced at each stage until no problems remain to be solved).
   4. (10 points) How would you deploy such a system? In particular, how would you make it easy for users of other systems to switch to your system? Would the transition be gradual, or will users have to buy into your system all at once? What are the advantages of your approach? What are the disadvantages?

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