Every object that is made available through a DCE service is referenced by a unique name. The cell is a collection of all of these names.
The name for all objects starts with the cell root (/.:) and is then followed by a sequence of strings separated by slashes (/). Because the cell root is itself a name in the CDS namespace, all name searches actually start by searching the CDS namespace. Once the search hits the root of the Security (/sec) namespace, the search continues in that different namespace, thus creating a junction in the CDS as shown below.
Figure 3 Name Interpretation By DCE Services