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Efficient interval management using object-relational database servers

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Informatik - Forschung und Entwicklung

Abstract

User-defined data types such as intervals require specialized access methods to be efficiently searched and queried. As database implementors cannot provide appropriate index structures and query processing methods for each conceivable data type, present-day object-relational database systems offer extensible indexing frameworks that enable developers to extend the set of built-in index structures by custom access methods. Although these frameworks permit a seamless integration of user-defined indexing techniques into query processing they do not facilitate the actual implementation of the access method itself. In order to leverage the applicability of indexing frameworks, relational access methods such as the Relational Interval Tree (RI-tree), an efficient index structure to process interval intersection queries, mainly rely on the functionality, robustness and performance of built-in indexes, thus simplifying the index implementation significantly. To investigate the behavior and performance of the recently released IBM DB2 indexing framework we use this interface to integrate the RI-tree into the DB2 server. The standard implementation of the RI-tree, however, does not fit to the narrow corset of the DB2 framework which is restricted to the use of a single index only. We therefore present our adaptation of the original two-tree technique to the single index constraint as well as an approximate adaptation which conceptually only needs a single index. As experimental results with interval intersection queries show, the plugged-in access methods deliver excellent performance compared to other techniques.

Zusammenfassung

Benutzerdefinierte Datentypen wie beispielsweise Intervalle setzen zur effizienten Realisierung von Suchanfragen spezialisierte Zugriffsmethoden voraus. Da nicht für jeden denkbaren Datentyp datenbankseitig auch die entsprechenden Indexstrukturen und passenden Zugriffs- und Anfragemethoden zur Verfügung gestellt werden können, bieten moderne objekt-relationale Datenbanksysteme erweiterbare Indexschnittstellen an, die den Entwicklern die Möglichkeit geben, die eingebauten Indexstrukturen um maßgeschneiderte Zugriffsmethoden zu erweitern. Obwohl diese Schnittstellen die nahtlose Integration von benutzerdefinierten Indexierungstechniken in die Anfragebearbeitung ermöglichen, erleichtern sie nicht die eigentliche Implementierung der tatsächlichen Zugriffsmethode. Um die Vorteile dieser Schnittstellen zu nutzen, verlassen sich Zugriffsmethoden wie beispielsweise der Relationale Intervallbaum (RI-Baum), eine Indexstruktur zur effizienten Bearbeitung von Intervallschnittanfragen, hauptsächlich auf die Funktionalität, Robustheit und Leistung von eingebauten Indexen, wodurch die Indeximplementierung wesentlich vereinfacht wird. Um das Verhalten und die Leistung des kürzlich veröffentlichten IBM DB2 Indexing Framework zu untersuchen, wurde der RI-Baum in den DB2-Datenbankserver mittels dieser Schnittstelle integriert. Die Standardimplementation des RI-Baums jedoch genügt nicht den restriktiven Anforderungen der DB2-Schnittstelle, welche nur die Verwendung eines einzelnen Indexes zulässt. Daher wird hier sowohl eine Adaption der ursprünglichen Zwei-Index-Technik gemäß der Einschränkung auf einen Index vorgestellt als auch eine approximierte Version, welche konzeptionell nur einen einzelnen Index benötigt. Experimentelle Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die auf diese Weise integrierten Zugriffsmethoden verglichen mit anderen Techniken exzellente Leistungswerte aufweisen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science IX (Data Management and Exploration Group), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Christoph Brochhaus, Jost Enderle, Achim Schlosser & Thomas Seidl

  2. Information Integration Development, IBM Germany, Germany

    Knut Stolze

  3. Database and Information Systems Group, University of Jena, Jena, Germany

    Knut Stolze

Authors
  1. Christoph Brochhaus
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  2. Jost Enderle
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  3. Achim Schlosser
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  4. Thomas Seidl
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  5. Knut Stolze
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Correspondence to Christoph Brochhaus.

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E.1,E.2,H.2.4,H.3.3

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Brochhaus, C., Enderle, J., Schlosser, A. et al. Efficient interval management using object-relational database servers. Informatik Forsch. Entw. 20, 121–137 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00450-005-0207-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00450-005-0207-7

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