Quiz Assignment-II Solutions: Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (Week-2)

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Q.1 What are the two key design goals for Open vSwitch?

A. Scalability and partitioning

B. Isolation and tunneling
C. Reliability and filtering
D. Flexible and fast-forwarding

Answer: D) Flexible and fast-forwarding

Explanation: Open vSwitch design goals are flexible and fast-forwarding.

Q. 2 Consider the following statements related to Software-defined networking (SDN)

technology

Statement 1: SDN is an approach to network management that enables dynamic,

programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance
and monitoring making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.

Statement 2: SDN attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by

disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (data plane) from the routing
process (control plane).

A. Only statement 1 is true

B. Only statement 2 is true
C. Both statements are false
D. Both statements are true

Answer: D) Both statements are true

Explanation: SDN is an approach to network management that enables dynamic,

programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance
and monitoring making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.
SDN is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is
decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy
troubleshooting. SDN attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component
by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (data plane) from the routing
process (control plane). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are
considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated.
Q. 3 Match the correct pairs:

P: VL2 I: Achieving high utilization with software-defined WAN.

Q: B4 II: Simple forwarding along the path

R: SWAN III: Inside one site, it has the data center network, of cluster & border routers
and uses the ‘Quagga’ software switch to run the routing protocols between
the cluster border routers.
S: MPLS IV: It uses: (i) flat addressing to allow service instances to be placed
anywhere in the network, (ii) Valiant load balancing to spread traffic
uniformly across network paths, and (iii) End-system based address resolution
to scale to large server pools, without introducing complexity to the network
control plane

A. P: IV, Q: III, R: I, S: II
B. P: IV, Q: I, R: II, S: III
C. P: III, Q: I, R: II, S: IV
D. P: II, Q: IV, R: III, S: I

Answer: A) P: IV, Q: III, R: I, S: II

Explanation:

VL2: It uses: (i) flat addressing to allow service instances to be placed anywhere in the
network, (ii) Valiant load balancing to spread traffic uniformly across network paths, and
(iii) End-system based address resolution to scale to large server pools, without introducing
complexity to the network control plane

B4: Inside one site, it has the data center network, of cluster & border routers and uses the
‘Quagga’ software switch to run the routing protocols between the cluster border routers.

SWAN: Achieving high utilization with software-defined WAN.

MPLS: Making forwarding along the path very simple. This is the reason the protocol is
called Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS).

Q. 4 True or False ?

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside

software containers, by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of OS–
level virtualization on Linux.

A. True
B. False

Answer: A) True
Explanation: The primary objective behind server consolidation is to consume all of a
server's available resources and reduce the capital and operational expenses associated with
multiple servers. Traditionally, only 15-30 percent of a physical server's overall capacity is
used. With server consolidation, the utilization rate can be increased to well over 80 percent.
Server consolidation works on the principles of server virtualization, where one or more
virtual servers resides on a physical server.

Q. 5 ______________ is a network emulator which creates a network of virtual hosts,

switches, controllers, and links.

A. Docker
B. Mininet
C. Hypervisor
D. KVM

Answer: B) Mininet

Explanation: Mininet is a network emulator which creates a network of virtual hosts,

switches, controllers, and links. Mininet hosts run standard Linux network software, and its
switches support OpenFlow for highly flexible custom routing and software-defined
networking.

Q. 6 To offer hot-spot free performance for arbitrary traffic matrices, VL2 uses two related
mechanisms:

A. Flows and out-of-order delivery

B. Clos network and EQMP
C. Agility and Load balancing
D. VLB and ECMP

Answer: D) VLB and ECMP

Explanation: To offer hot-spot-free performance for arbitrary traffic matrices, VL2 uses two
related mechanisms: VLB (Valiant Load Balancing) and ECMP (Equal Cost Multi Path). The
goals of both are similar — VLB distributes traffic across a set of intermediate nodes and
ECMP distributes across equal-cost paths — but each is needed to overcome limitations in
the other.
Q. 7 The key challenges of a Multi-Tenant Data Center are:

I. Performance uniformity
II. Agility
III. Scalability
IV. Location independent addressing

Options:

A. I, II, III
B. I, II, IV
C. II, III, IV
D. I, III, IV

Answer: B) I, II, IV

Explanation: Cloud is shared among multiple parties and gives economy of scale. To share
the cloud among multiple tenants, there's bit more work to do. So the key needs for building a
multi-tenant Cloud data center are:

(i) Agility, (ii) Location independent addressing, (iii) Performance uniformity, (iv) Security,
(v) Network semantics

Q. 8 Consider the following statements:

Statement 1: In Single-root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), forwarding is no longer as flexible

because it relies on a layer two switch that is built into the hardware of the NIC.

Statement 2: In Single-root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), the live VM migration becomes

trickier, because the virtual machine is tied to physical resources of the machine.

A. Only statement 1 is true

B. Only statement 2 is true
C. Both statements are true
D. Both statements are false

Answer: C) Both statements are true

Explanation: The downsides to Single-root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) approach are:

Live VM migration becomes trickier, because now you've tied the virtual machine to physical
resources on that machine.

The forwarding state for that virtual machine now resides in the layer two switch inside the
NIC.
Q. 9 ____________ is the original OpenFlow controller. It serves as a network control
platform, that provides a high level programmatic interface for management and the
development of network control applications. Its system-wide abstractions turn networking
into a software problem.

A. Routing Control Platform

B. 4D architecture
C. Ethane
D. NOX

Answer: D) NOX

Explanation: NOX is the original OpenFlow controller. It serves as a network control

platform, that provides a high level programmatic interface for management and the
development of network control applications. Its system-wide abstractions turn networking
into a software problem.

NOX aims to provide a platform which allows developers and researchers the ability to
innovate within enterprise networks in the form of developing novel applications.
Applications on NOX typically determine how each flow is routed or not routed in the
network.

Q. 10 Choose the correct items for X, Y, and Z.

X architecture comprises a hierarchy of controllers. At the top level we have

the Y, which is talking to an SDN gateway. The gateway can be thought of as a
super controller that talks to the controller's at all these different Z.

A. X: Global controller, Y: Google’s B4, Z: Data center sites

B. X: Google’s B4, Y: Data center sites, Z: Global controller
C. X: Google’s B4, Y: Global controller, Z: Data center sites
D. X: Data center sites, Y: Google’s B4, Z: Global controller

Answer: C) X: Google’s B4, Y: Global controller, Z: Data center sites

Explanation: Google’s B4 architecture comprises a hierarchy of controllers: At the

top level we have the global controller, which is talking to an SDN gateway. The
gateway can be thought of as a super controller that talks to the controller's at all
these different data center sites.