Naming in the distributed operating system ZGL

Abstract

In this paper, the naming scheme used in the heterogeneous distributed operating system ZGL is described and some of the representative techniques utilized in current distributed operating systems are examined. It is believed that the partitioning of the name space into many local name spaces and one global shared name space allows the ZGL system to satisfy each workstation's demand for local autonomy and still be able to facilitate transparent resource sharing. By the division of the system into clusters and the use of a combined centralized distributed naming mechanism, the system is able to avoid both the bottleneck problem caused by a single centralized name server for the whole system and the per formance degradation due to a full distributed scheme.