A DCE cell consists of the machines that are configured into it; each DCE machine belongs to one DCE cell. Your local cell is therefore the cell to which the machine you are using belongs. Depending on the DCE name you are using, you can access your own cell or other (foreign) cells. If the name you are accessing is global, then its cell is explicitly named. If the name begins with the local cell prefix, then you are accessing a name within your local cell. You can find out what cell you are in by calling the dce_cf_get_cell_name( ) function.
Using the global directory services, applications can access resources and services in foreign cells; however, applications most frequently use resources from their local cell. If this is not the case, the cell boundaries may not have been well chosen.