I wanted to talk about the final this coming Thursday. The final will be closed book and that means no laptops either :)

All the papers covered in class in addition to the ones that you had to review (e.g. Pastry) and we didn't cover in class are going to be part of the final.

Types of questions in the final

1. Describe how system X solves problem Y (e.g. how does Napster solve the problem of finding a file?)
2. What is the purpose of component C in system X (e.g. What is the purpose of the Ping-Pong mechanism in Gnutella?)
3. Compare systems X,Y and Z in terms of how the solve problem P or in terms of some performance aspect. (e.g. Compare Chord, Pastry and CAN in terms of their latency stretch)