Chapter 5 - Naming

Introduction
ƒ names play an important role to:
ƒ share resources
ƒ uniquely identify entities
ƒ refer to locations
ƒ etc.
ƒ an important issue is that a name can be resolved to the entity
it refers to
ƒ to resolve names, it is necessary to implement a naming
system
ƒ in a distributed system, the implementation of a naming
system is itself often distributed, unlike in nondistributed
systems
ƒ efficiency and scalability of the naming system are the main
issues

2
 Objectives of the Chapter
ƒ we will discuss
ƒ some general issues in naming
ƒ how human-friendly names are organized and implemented;
e.g., those for file systems and the WWW; classes of
naming systems
ƒ flat naming
ƒ structured naming, and
ƒ attribute-based naming

3
 5.1 Names, Identifiers, and Addresses
ƒ a name in a distributed system is a string of bits or characters
that is used to refer to an entity
ƒ an entity is anything; e.g., resources such as hosts, printers,
disks, files, objects, processes, users, Web pages,
newsgroups, mailboxes, network connections, ...
ƒ entities can be operated on
ƒ e.g., a resource such as a printer offers an interface
containing operations for printing a document, requesting
the status of a job, etc.
ƒ a network connection may provide operations for sending
and receiving data, setting quality of service parameters, etc.
ƒ to operate on an entity, it is necessary to access it through its
access point, itself an entity (special)

4
ƒ access point
ƒ the name of an access point is called an address (such as
IP address and port number as used by the transport layer)
ƒ the address of the access point of an entity is also referred
to as the address of the entity
ƒ an entity can have more than one access point (similar to
accessing an individual through different telephone
numbers)
ƒ an entity may change its access point in the course of time
(e.g., a mobile computer getting a new IP address as it
moves)

5
ƒ an address is a special kind of name
ƒ it refers to at most one entity
ƒ each entity is referred by at most one address; even when
replicated such as in Web pages
ƒ an entity may change an access point, or an access point
may be reassigned to a different entity (like telephone
numbers in offices)
ƒ separating the name of an entity and its address makes it
easier and more flexible; such a name is called location
independent
ƒ there are also other types of names that uniquely identify an
entity; in any case a true identifier is a name with the
following properties
ƒ it refers to at most one entity
ƒ each entity is referred by at most one identifier
ƒ it always refers to the same entity (never reused)
ƒ identifiers allow us to unambiguously refer to an entity
6
ƒ examples
ƒ name of an FTP server (entity)
ƒ URL of the FTP server
ƒ address of the FTP server
ƒ IP number:port number
ƒ the address of the FTP server may change
ƒ there are three classes on naming systems: flat naming,
structured naming, and attribute-based naming

7
 5.2 Flat Naming
ƒ a name is a sequence of characters without structure; like
human names? may be if it is not an Ethiopian name!
ƒ difficult to be used in a large system since it must be centrally
controlled to avoid duplication
ƒ moreover, it does not contain any information on how to
locate the access point of its associated entity
ƒ how are flat names resolved (or how to locate an entity when
a flat name is given)
ƒ name resolution: mapping a name to an address or an
address to a name is called name-address resolution
ƒ possible solutions: simple solutions, home-based
approaches, and hierarchical approaches

8
1. Simple Solutions
„ two solutions (for LANs only): Broadcasting and

Multicasting, and Forwarding Pointers

a. Broadcasting and Multicasting
ƒ broadcast a message containing the identifier of an
entity; only machines that can offer an access point for
the entity send a reply
ƒ e.g., ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) in the Internet to
find the data link address (MAC address) of a machine
ƒ a computer that wants to access another computer for
which it knows its IP address broadcasts this address
ƒ the owner responds by sending its Ethernet address
ƒ broadcasting is inefficient when the network grows
(wastage of bandwidth and too much interruption to other
machines)
ƒ multicasting is better when the network grows - send only
to a restricted group of hosts
9
 ƒ multicasting can also be used to locate the nearest replica
- choose the one whose reply comes in first

b. Forwarding Pointers
ƒ how to look for mobile entities
ƒ when an entity moves from A to B, it leaves behind a
reference to its new location
ƒ advantage
ƒ simple: as soon as the first name is located using
traditional naming service, the chain of forwarding
pointers can be used to find the current address
ƒ drawbacks
ƒ the chain can be too long - locating becomes expensive
ƒ all the intermediary locations in a chain have to maintain
their pointers
ƒ vulnerability if links are broken
ƒ hence, making sure that chains are short and that
forwarding pointers are robust is an important issue 10
2. Home-Based Approaches
ƒ broadcasting and multicasting have scalability problems;
performance and broken links are problems in forwarding
pointers
ƒ a home location keeps track of the current location of an
entity; often it is the place where an entity was created
ƒ it is a two-tiered approach
ƒ an example where it is used in Mobile IP
ƒ each mobile host uses a fixed IP address
ƒ all communication to that IP address is initially directly
sent to the host’s home agent located on the LAN
corresponding to the network address contained in the
mobile host’s IP address
ƒ whenever the mobile host moves to another network, it
requests a temporary address in the new network
(called care-of-address) and informs the new address
to the home agent
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ƒ when the home agent receives a message for the mobile host
(from a correspondent agent) it forwards it to its new address
(if it has moved) and also informs the sender the host’s
current location for sending other packets

home-based approach: the principle of Mobile IP 12

ƒ problems:
ƒ creates communication latency (Triangle routing:
correspondent-home network-mobile)
ƒ the home location must always exist; the host is
unreachable if the home does no more exist (permanently
changed); the solution is to register the home at a traditional
name service and let a client first look up the location of the
home

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3. Hierarchical Approaches
ƒ a generalization of the two-tiered approach into multiple
layers
ƒ a network is divided into a collection of domains, similar
to DNS
ƒ a single top-level domain spans the entire network
ƒ each domain can be subdivided into multiple, smaller
domains
ƒ the lowest-level domain is called a leaf domain; typically a
LAN
ƒ each domain D has an associated directory node dir(D)
that keeps track of the entities in that domain leading to a
tree of directory nodes
ƒ the root (directory) node knows about all entities

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hierarchical organization of a location service into domains, each having an
associated directory node

15
ƒ each entity is represented by a location record in the
directory node dir(D) to keep track of its whereabouts
ƒ a location record for an entity in a leaf domain contains the
entity’s current address; all other high-level domains will
have only pointers to this address; this means the root node
will store only pointers to all entities
ƒ an entity may have multiple addresses, for instance, if it is
replicated; a higher level domain containing the two
subdomains where the entity has addresses will have two
pointers

16
an example of storing information of an entity having two addresses in
different leaf domains D1 and D2

17
ƒ example of a look up operation
ƒ a client (in Domain D) would like to locate an entity E

looking up a location in a hierarchically organized location service

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ƒ update operations (i.e., inserting and deleting addresses)
ƒ read pages 194 - 195)
ƒ in addition to the three methods discussed so far (simple
solutions, home-based approaches, and hierarchical
approaches), another approach for resolution in flat naming is
Distributed Hash Tables (DHT)
ƒ read pages 188 - 191

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 5.3 Structured Naming
ƒ flat names are not convenient for humans
ƒ Name Spaces
ƒ names are organized into a name space
ƒ each name is made of several parts; the first may define
the nature of the organization, the second the name, the
third departments, ...
ƒ the authority to assign and control the name spaces can be
decentralized where a central authority assigns only the
first two parts
ƒ a name space is generally organized as a labeled, directed
graph with two types of nodes
ƒ leaf node: represents the named entity and stores
information such as its address or the state of that entity
ƒ directory node: a special entity that has a number of
outgoing edges, each labeled with a name
ƒ each node in a naming graph is considered as another entity
with an identifier
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 a general naming graph with a single root node, no
ƒ a directory node stores a table in which an outgoing edge is
represented as a pair (edge label, node identifier), called a
directory table
ƒ each path in a naming graph can be referred to by the
sequence of labels corresponding to the edges of the path
and the first node in the path, such as
N:<label-1, label-2, ..., label-n>, where N refers to the first
node in the path 21
ƒ such a sequence is called a path name
ƒ if the first node is the root of the naming graph, it is called an
absolute path name; otherwise it is a relative path name
ƒ instead of the path name n0:<home, steen, mbox>, we often
use its string representation /home/steen/mbox
ƒ there may also be several paths leading to the same node,
e.g., node n5 can be represented as /keys or
/home/steen/keys
ƒ although the above naming graph is directed acyclic graph (a
node can have more than one incoming edge but is not
permitted to have a cycle), the common way is to use a tree
(hierarchical) with a single root (as is used in file systems)
ƒ in a tree structure, each node except the root has exactly
one incoming edge; the root has no incoming edges
 each node also has exactly one associated (absolute) path
name

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ƒ e.g., file naming in UNIX file system
ƒ a directory node represents a directory and a leaf node
represents a file
ƒ there is a single root directory, represented in the naming
graph by the root node
ƒ we have a contiguous series of blocks from a logical disk
ƒ the boot block is used to load the operating system
ƒ the superblock contains information on the entire file
system such as its size, etc.
ƒ inodes are referred to by an index number, starting at
number zero, which is for the inode representing the root
directory
ƒ given the index number of an inode, it is possible to access
its associated file

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ƒ Name Resolution
ƒ given a path name, the process of looking up a name
stored in the node is referred to as name resolution; it
consists of finding the address when the name is given (by
following the path)
ƒ knowing how and where to start name resolution is referred
to as closure mechanism; e.g., UNIX file system
ƒ Linking and Mounting
ƒ Linking: giving another name for the same entity (an alias)
e.g., environment variables in UNIX such as HOME that
refer to the home directory of a user
ƒ two types of links (or two ways to implement an alias):
hard link and symbolic link
ƒ hard link: to allow multiple absolute path names to
refer to the same node in a naming graph
e.g., in the previous graph, there are two different path
names for node n5: /keys and /home/steen/keys
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ƒ symbolic link: representing an entity by a leaf node and
instead of storing the address or state of the entity, the
node stores an absolute path name

the concept of a symbolic link explained in a naming graph

ƒ when first resolving an absolute path name stored in a

node (e.g., /home/steen/keys in node n6), name
resolution will return the path name stored in the node
(/keys), at which point it can continue with resolving that
new path name, i.e., closure mechanism
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ƒ so far name resolution was discussed as taking place
within a single name space
ƒ name resolution can also be used to merge different name
spaces in a transparent way
ƒ the solution is to use mounting
Mounting
ƒ as an example, consider a mounted file system, which
can be generalized to other name spaces as well
ƒ let a directory node store the directory node from a
different (foreign) name space
ƒ the directory node storing the node identifier is called a
mount point
ƒ the directory node in the foreign name space is called a
mounting point, normally the root of a name space
ƒ during name resolution, the mounting point is looked up
and resolution proceeds by accessing its directory table

26
ƒ consider a collection of name spaces distributed across
different machines (each name space implemented by a
different server)
ƒ to mount a foreign name space in a distributed system, the
following are at least required
ƒ the name of an access protocol (for communication)
ƒ the name of the server
ƒ the name of the mounting point in the foreign name space
ƒ each of these names needs to be resolved
ƒ to the implementation of the protocol so that
communication can take place properly
ƒ to an address where the server can be reached
ƒ to a node identifier in the foreign name space (to be
resolved by the server of the foreign name space)
ƒ the three names can be listed as a URL

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ƒ example: Sun’s Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file
system with a protocol that describes how a client can
access a file stored on a (remote) NFS file server
ƒ an NFS URL may look like nfs://flits.cs.vu.nl/home/steen
- nfs is an implementation of a protocol
- flits.cs.vu.nl is a server name to be resolved using DNS
- /home/steen is resolved by the foreign server
ƒ e.g., the subdirectory /remote includes mount points for
foreign name spaces on the client machine
ƒ a directory node named /remote/vu is used to store
nfs://flits.cs.vu.nl/home/steen
ƒ consider /remote/vu/mbox
ƒ this name is resolved by starting at the root directory on
the client’s machine until node /remote/vu, which returns
the URL nfs://flits.cs.vu.nl/home/steen
ƒ this leads the client machine to contact flits.cs.vu.nl
using the NFS protocol
ƒ then the file mbox is read in the directory /home/steen
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 mount point

mounting point

mounting remote name spaces through a specific process protocol

29
ƒ distributed systems that allow mounting a remote file system
also allow to execute some commands
ƒ example commands to access the file system
cd /remote/vu /*changing directory on the remote machine
ls -l /*listing the files on the remote machine
ƒ by doing so the user is not supposed to worry about the
details of the actual access; the name space on the local
machine and that on the remote machine look to form a
single name space

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ƒ The Implementation of a Name Space
ƒ a name space forms the heart of a naming service
ƒ a naming service allows users and processes to add,
remove, and lookup names
ƒ a naming service is implemented by name servers
ƒ for a distributed system on a single LAN, a single server
might suffice; for a large-scale distributed system the
implementation of a name space is distributed over multiple
name servers

ƒ Name Space Distribution

ƒ in large scale distributed systems, it is necessary to
distribute the name service over multiple name servers,
usually organized hierarchically
ƒ a name service can be partitioned into logical layers
ƒ the following three layers can be distinguished (according to
Cheriton and Mann)
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ƒ global layer
ƒ formed by highest level nodes (root node and nodes close
to it or its children)
ƒ nodes on this layer are characterized by their stability, i.e.,
directory tables are rarely changed
ƒ they may represent organizations, groups of
organizations, ..., where names are stored in the name
space
ƒ administrational layer
ƒ groups of entities that belong to the same organization or
administrational unit, e.g., departments
ƒ relatively stable
ƒ managerial layer
ƒ nodes that may change regularly, e.g., nodes representing
hosts of a LAN, shared files such as libraries or binaries,
…
ƒ nodes are managed not only by system administrators,
but also by end users 32
an example partitioning of the DNS name space, including Internet-
accessible files, into three layers 33
ƒ the name space is divided into nonoverlapping parts, called
zones in DNS
ƒ a zone is a part of the name space that is implemented by a
separate name server
ƒ some requirements of servers at different layers: performance
(responsiveness to lookups), availability (failure rate), etc.
ƒ high availability is critical for the global layer, since name
resolution cannot proceed beyond the failing server; it is
also important at the administrational layer for clients in the
same organization
ƒ performance is very important in the lowest layer, since
results of lookups can be cached and used due to the
relative stability of the higher layers
ƒ they may be enhanced by client side caching (for global and
administrational layers since names do not change often)
and replication; they create implementation problems since
they may introduce inconsistency (see Chapter 7)

34
Item Global Administrational Managerial

Geographical scale of network Worldwide Organization Department

Total number of nodes Few Many Vast numbers

Responsiveness to lookups Seconds Milliseconds Immediate

Update propagation Lazy Immediate Immediate

Availability requirement Very High High low

Number of replicas Many None or few None

Is client-side caching applied? Yes Yes Sometimes

a comparison between name servers for implementing nodes from a large-

scale name space partitioned into a global layer, an administrational
layer, and a managerial layer

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ƒ Implementation of Name Resolution
ƒ recall that name resolution consists of finding the address
when the name is given
ƒ assume that name servers are not replicated and that no
client-side caches are allowed
ƒ each client has access to a local name resolver, responsible
for ensuring that the name resolution process is carried out
ƒ e.g., assume the path name
root:<nl, vu, cs, ftp, pub, globe, index.txt>
is to be resolved
or using a URL notation, this path name would correspond
to ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/globe/index.txt

36
ƒ a host that needs to map a name to an address calls a DNS
client named a resolver (and provides it the name to be
resolved - ftp.cs.vu.nl)
ƒ the resolver accesses the closest DNS server with a mapping
request
ƒ if the server has the information it satisfies the resolver;
otherwise, it either refers the resolver to other servers (called
Iterative Resolution) or asks other servers to provide it with
the information (called Recursive Resolution)
ƒ Iterative Resolution
ƒ a name resolver hands over the complete name to the root
name server
ƒ the root name server will resolve the name as far as it can
and return the result to the client; at the minimum it can
resolve the first level and sends the name of the first level
name server to the client
ƒ the client calls the first level name server, then the second,
..., until it finds the address of the entity 37
the principle of iterative name resolution

38
ƒ Recursive Resolution
ƒ a name resolver hands over the whole name to the root name
server
ƒ the root name server will try to resolve the name and if it
can’t, it requests the first level name server to resolve it and
to return the address
ƒ the first level will do the same thing recursively

the principle of recursive name resolution 39

ƒ Advantages and drawbacks
ƒ recursive name resolution puts a higher performance
demand on each name server; hence name servers in the
global layer support only iterative name resolution
ƒ caching is more effective with recursive name resolution
ƒ each name server gradually learns the address of each
name server responsible for implementing lower-level
nodes
ƒ eventually lookup operations can be handled efficiently

40
Server for Should Looks Passes to Receives Returns to
node resolve up child and caches requester
cs <ftp> #<ftp> -- -- #<ftp>
vu <cs,ftp> #<cs> <ftp> #<ftp> #<cs>
#<cs, ftp>
nl <vu,cs,ftp> #<vu> <cs,ftp> #<cs> #<vu>
#<cs,ftp> #<vu,cs>
#<vu,cs,ftp>
root <nl,vu,cs,ftp> #<nl> <vu,cs,ftp> #<vu> #<nl>
#<vu,cs> #<nl,vu>
#<vu,cs,ftp> #<nl,vu,cs>
#<nl,vu,cs,ftp>
recursive name resolution of <nl, vu, cs, ftp>; name servers cache
intermediate results for subsequent lookups

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 ƒ communication costs may be reduced in recursive name
resolution

the comparison between recursive and iterative name resolution with

respect to communication costs; assume the client is in Ethiopia and
ƒ Summary the name servers in the Netherlands

Method Advantages
Recursive Less Communication cost; Caching is more effective
Iterative Less performance demand on name servers
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ƒ Example - The Domain Name System (DNS)
ƒ one of the largest distributed naming services is the
Internet DNS
ƒ it is used for looking up host addresses and mail servers
ƒ hierarchical, defined in an inverted tree structure with the
root at the top
ƒ the tree can have only 128 levels

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 ƒ Label
ƒ each node has a label, a string with a maximum of 63
characters (case insensitive)
ƒ the root label is null (has no label)
ƒ children of a node must have different names (to guarantee
uniqueness)
ƒ Domain Name
ƒ each node has a domain
name; it is a path name to its
root node
ƒ a full domain name is a
sequence of labels separated
by dots (the last character is a
dot)
ƒ domain names are read from
the node up to the root
ƒ full path names must not
exceed 255 characters
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 ƒ the contents of a node is formed by a collection of resource
records; the important ones are the following
Type of Associated
Description
record entity
SOA (start of Holds information on the represented zone, such as an
Zone
authority) e-mail address of the system administrator
A (address) Host Contains an IP address of the host this node represents
MX (mail Refers to a mail server to handle mail addressed to this
Domain
exchange) node; it is a symbolic link; e.g. name of a mail server
SRV Domain Refers to a server handling a specific service
NS (name Refers to a name server that implements the
Zone
server) represented zone
CNAME Node Contains the canonical name of a host; an alias
Symbolic link with the primary name of the represented
PTR (pointer) Host
node; for mapping an IP address to a name
HINFO (host Holds information on the host this node represents;
Host
info) such as machine type and OS
Contains any entity-specific information considered
TXT Any kind
useful; cannot be automatically processed
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ƒ cs.vu.nl represents the domain as well as the zone; it has 4
name servers (ns, star, top, solo) and 3 mail servers
ƒ name server for this zone with 2 network addresses (star)
ƒ mail servers; the numbers preceding the name show
priorities; first the one with the lowest number is tried

an excerpt from the DNS database for the zone cs.vu.nl 46

ƒ a Web server and an FTP server, implemented by a single
machine (soling)
ƒ older server clusters (vucs-das1)
ƒ two printers (inkt and pen) with a local address; i.e., they
cannot be accessed from outside

an excerpt from the DNS database for the zone cs.vu.nl, cont’d
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 ƒ cs.vu.nl is implemented as a single zone
ƒ hence, the records in the previous slides do not include
references to other zones
ƒ nodes in a subdomain that are implemented in a different
zone are specified by giving the domain name and IP
address

part of the description for the vu.nl domain which contains the cs.vu.nl domain

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 5.4 Attribute-Based Naming
ƒ flat naming: provides a unique and location-independent way
of referring to entities
ƒ structured naming: also provides a unique and location-
independent way of referring to entities as well as human-
friendly names
ƒ but both do not allow searching entities by giving a
description of an entity
ƒ in attribute-based naming, each entity is assumed to have a
collection of attributes that say something about the entity
ƒ then a user can search an entity by specifying (attribute, value)
pairs known as attribute-based naming
ƒ Directory Services
ƒ attribute-based naming systems are also called directory
services whereas systems that support structured naming
are called naming systems

49
 ƒ how are resources described? one possibility is to use RDF
(Resource Description Framework) that uses triplets
consisting of a subject, a predicate, and an object
ƒ e.g., (person, name, Alice) to describe a resource Person
whose Name is Alice
ƒ or in e-mail systems, we can use sender, recipient, subject,
etc. for searching
ƒ Hierarchical Implementations: LDAP
ƒ distributed directory services are implemented by combining
structured naming with attribute-based naming
ƒ e.g., Microsoft’s Active Directory service
ƒ such systems rely on the lightweight directory access
protocol or LADP which is derived from OSI’s X.500
directory service
ƒ a LADP directory service consists of a number of records
called directory entries (attribute, value) pairs, similar to a
resource record in DNS; could be single- or multiple-valued
(e.g., Mail_Servers on next slide) 50
Attribute Abbr. Value
Country C NL
Locality L Amsterdam
Organization O Vrije Universiteit
OrganizationalUnit OU Comp. Sc.
CommonName CN Main server
Mail_Servers -- 137.37.20.3, 130.37.24.6,137.37.20.10
FTP_Server -- 130.37.20.20
WWW_Server -- 130.37.20.20

a simple example of an LDAP directory entry using LDAP naming

conventions to identify the network addresses of some servers

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ƒ the collection of all directory entries is called a Directory
Information Base (DIB)
ƒ each record is uniquely named so that it can be looked up
ƒ each naming attribute is called a Relative Distinguished
Name (RDN); the first 5 entries above
ƒ a globally unique name is formed using abbreviations of
naming attributes, e.g.,
/C=NL/O=Vrije Universiteit/OU=Comp. Sc.
ƒ this is similar to the DNS name nl.vu.cs
ƒ listing RDNs in sequence leads to a hierarchy of the
collection of directory entries, called a Directory
Information Tree (DIT)
ƒ a DIT forms the naming graph of an LDAP directory service
where each node represents a directory entry

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ƒ node N corresponds to the directory entry shown earlier; it
also acts as a parent of other directory entries that have an
additional attribute, Host_Name; such entries may be used
to represent hosts

part of the directory information tree

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Attribute Value Attribute Value
Country NL Country NL
Locality Amsterdam Locality Amsterdam
Organization Vrije Universiteit Organization Vrije Universiteit

OrganizationalUnit Comp. Sc. OrganizationalUnit Comp. Sc.

CommonName Main server CommonName Main server

Host_Name star Host_Name zephyr
Host_Address 192.31.231.42 Host_Address 137.37.20.10

two directory entries having Host_Name as RDN

ƒ read pages 221 - 226 about Decentralized Implementations

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