Scaling XML query processing: distribution, localization and pruning

Distributing data collections by fragmenting them is an effective way of improving the scalability of a database system. While the distribution of relational data is well understood, the unique characteristics of the XML data and query model present challenges that require different distribution techniques. In this paper, we show how XML data can be fragmented horizontally and vertically. Based on this, we propose solutions to two of the problems encountered in distributed query processing and optimization on XML data, namely localization and pruning. Localization takes a fragmentation-unaware query plan and converts it to a distributed query plan that can be executed at the sites that hold XML data fragments in a distributed system. We then show how the resulting distributed query plan can be pruned so that only those sites are accessed that can contribute to the query result. We demonstrate that our techniques can be integrated into a real-life XML database system and that they significantly improve the performance of distributed query execution.     

Popularity-aware prefetch in P2P range caching

Unstructured peer-to-peer infrastructure has been widely employed to support large-scale distributed applications. Many of these applications, such as location-based services and multimedia content distribution, require the support of range selection queries. Under the widely-adopted query shipping protocols, the cost of query processing is affected by the number of result copies or replicas in the system. Since range queries can return results that include poorly-replicated data items, the cost of these queries is usually dominated by the retrieval cost of these data items. In this work, we propose a popularity-aware prefetch-based approach that can effectively facilitate the caching of poorly-replicated data items that are potentially requested in subsequent range queries, resulting in substantial cost savings. We prove that the performance of retrieving poorly-replicated data items is guaranteed to improve under an increasing query load. Extensive experiments show that the overall range query processing cost decreases significantly under various query load settings.     

User’s manual as a requirements specification: case studies

This paper argues that a users manual makes an excellent software requirements specification. It describes several experiences, including one in industry, of writing users manuals as requirements specifications. Finally, it discusses several lessons learned from the experiences.

Introduction to the special issue on self‑managing and hardware‑optimized database systems 2020

Distributed and Parallel Databases -