Midterm Examination

CSci 555 / Neuman Fall 1995
Directions for completing exam

Answer the following two - multi part questions:

1. (65 points for 5 parts) It was reported Wednesday that Wells Fargo Bank will be making a bid for rival First Interstate Bank. If the merger is approved, significant cost savings will result from the integration of the information systems operations of the two banks.

   For the purpose of this exam question, assume that data processing at Wells Fargo bank is distributed across branches, with each branch maintaining balances and processing checks, deposits, withdrawals and payments for local customers. Communication between branches relies on message passing primitives. Assume also that First Interstate maintains a central, but replicated, data processing system maintaining balances and processing items for all First Interstate customers. Queries from the bank branches to this central system are made using an RPC based mechanism.

   1. What are the requirements for the banking applications described above that you feel need to be addressed in any system providing such services. (15 points)
   2. What are the advantages of the Wells Fargo approach to their data processing operations? What are the disadvantages? Why is message passing an appropriate communication model? What issues do you think they had to address to use message passing for a banking application? (10 points)
   3. What are the advantages of the First Interstate approach to their data processing operations? What are the disadvantages? Why is RPC an appropriate communication model? What issues do you think they had to address to use RPC for a banking application? (10 points)
   4. You have been hired as a consultant to provide advice on how to combine the data processing operations of the two banks. It must be possible for the existing branches of the banks to operate, without significant change in their existing procedures, yet to increase the efficiency of operations between accounts in the two original banks, interoperability is also required. What steps would you advise in the short term to allow interoperability between the data processing functions of the two banks. Why? (15 points)
   5. What long term architecture would you propose for data processing operations in the new bank. Why? (15 points)

2. (35 points for 2 parts)

   You've been hired by Los Angeles chamber of commerce to develop an Internet accessible directory of city and county services, tourist attractions, and commercial and industrial services and products available from or produced by business based in Los Angeles County. The goal is to promote tourism to and business with LA, thus improving our local economy. For the local businesses, some have their own sites on the Internet, while others will be represented only by the information available through the chamber of commerce directory. The goal of the project is to allow users elsewhere on the Internet to enter a query for a product or service that they require, and to return information about the Los Angeles business that can provide that product or service.

   For your design, answer the following questions:

   1. Discuss the meaning of the terms granularity and scalability with respect to the system described in this problem. What is the relationship between these two characteristics. How will you balance these possibly conflicting requirements in the design of the system? (15 points)
   2. What forms of naming might be employed in such a system? Might you use different forms of naming for different kinds of queries, or even for the same query? If so, describe the kind of naming you might use for different situations? Justify your choice of naming method for each situation.
      (20 points)

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