Transparency

Supervised By
Dr. Jane Jaleel
By:
Ghazwan Khalid
Israa Shihab
Huda Wadah
Transparency
 what is transparency?

 It means that end-users see just the

pretty boxes on their screens and not
the inner workings of the database,
such as the tables, i.e : a transparent
system “hides” the implementation
details from users.
Transparency
 Q: Why do we need transparency?

 A: Without DDBMS transparency,

applications must be written using
special knowledge about the stored
data.
Transparency
 Advantage of Transparency?

 The advantage of a fully transparent

DBMS is the high level of support that it
provides for the development of
complex applications.
Type of Transparency
 Distribution Transparency
 Transaction Transparency
 Performance Transparency
 Heterogeneity Transparency
Distribution Transparency
 Idea: Users perceive the DB as a single,
unified entity.
 Types of Distribution Transparency
 Fragmentation
 Location
 Local-mapping
 Replication
 Naming
Distribution Transparency:
Fragmentation
 What is a fragment?
 Horizontal fragments
 Fragmented by SELECTION
 Composed by UNION
 Vertical fragments
 Fragmented by PROJECTION
 Composed by JOIN
Distribution Transparency:
Fragmentation
 Mixed/Hybrid fragments
 Horizontal  Vertical fragmentation
 Vertical  Horizontal fragmentation
 Derived (Horizontal) fragments
 Fragmenti  Fragmentj
 Fragmented by SEMIJOIN
Fragment Types
Distribution Transparency:
Fragmentation
o Idea: Tables can be fragmented to different
sites without user awareness
o Therefore, neither fragment names nor
fragment locations are specified prior to data
access . Therefore, It is the highest level of
transparency.
o Example1: The Database Supports Fragmentation Transparency – It
does not specify fragment names or locations.

SELECT name FROM EMPLOYEE

WHERE EMP_DOB < ’01-JAN-1940’;
 Distribution Transparency:
Fragmentation Example
EMP # DEPT # SALARY
E1 DX 450$
Employee E2 DY 400$
E3 DZ 500$
E4 DY 630$
E5 DZ 400$ User Perception

New York fragment London fragment

EMP # DEPT # SALARY EMP # DEPT # SALARY
E1 DX 450$ E2 DY 400$
E3 DZ 500$ E4 DY 630$
E5 DZ 400$
Distribution Transparency:
Location
 Idea: Users don’t know where the data
is, but must specify fragment names
Distribution Transparency:
Location
 Suppose an employee wants to find all
employees with a birth date prior to Jan 1,
1940

 SELECT * FROM E1
WHERE EMP_BD < ’01-JAN-1940’
UNION
SELECT * FROM E2 …
UNION
SELECT * FROM E3…;
Distribution Transparency:
Local-mapping
 Idea: User needs to specify fragment
names and location of data items .
 Example: Suppose an employee wants to find all
employees with a birth date prior to Jan 1, 1940

 SELECT * FROM E1 NODE NY

WHERE EMP_BD < ’01-JAN-1940’
UNION
SELECT * FROM E2 NODE ATL …
UNION
SELECT * FROM E3 NODE Miami
Distribution Transparency
The use of various levels of
transparency:
Distribution Transparency:
Replication
 Idea: Objects can be copied, and copies
are maintained automatically and
without user knowledge.
 Replication provides user with fast,
access to shared data
 Even if one site becomes unavailable,
users can continue to query or even
update the remaining locations
 Distribution Transparency:
Replication Example
EMP # DEPT # SALARY
Employee
E1 DX 450 $
E2 DY 400 $
E3 DZ 500 $
E4 DY 630 $ User Perception
E5 DZ 400 $

EMP # DEPT # SALARY EMP # DEPT # SALARY

New York London
E1 DX 45 0$ E2 DY 400 $ fragment
fragment E3 DZ 500 $ E4 DY 630 $
E5 DZ 400 $
EMP # DEPT # SALARY
Replica of EMP # DEPT # SALARY Replica of
E1 DX 450 $ New York
London E2 DY 400 $ E3 DZ 500 $
fragment fragment
E4 DY 630 $ E5 DZ 400 $
Distribution Transparency:
Naming
 Idea: Each attribute in the DDB must
have an unique name; DDBMS ensures
this by either:
 Creating a central name server
 Prefixing attribute with site identifier
 Using aliases [Best Solution]
Transaction Transparency
 Idea: Distributed transactions look like
single-site transactions.
 Transaction transparency ensures that database transactions
will maintain the database’s integrity and consistency.
 allows a transaction to update data at several network sites.

 Example:
Transaction Transparency
 Concurrency Transparency
 Failure Transparency
Transaction Transparency:
Concurrency
 Idea: DDBMS ensures non-interference
among local and global transactions.

 All transactions must execute

independently and be logically
consistent with results obtained if
transactions executed one at a time.
Transaction Transparency:
Concurrency
 Same fundamental principles as for centralized DBMS.

 DDBMS must ensure both global and local transactions do

not interfere with each other.

 Similarly, DDBMS must ensure consistency of all sub

transactions of global transaction.

 Replication makes concurrency more complex. If a copy of a

replicated data item is updated, update must be propagated
to all copies.

 However, if one site holding copy is not reachable, then

transaction is delayed until site is reachable.
Transaction Transparency:
Failure
 Idea: ensures that the system will
continue to operate in the event of a
node failure:
 Loss of a message
 Failure of a communication link
 Failure of a site
 Network partitioning
 Distributed systems must maintain availability
even at low levels of hardware/software/
network reliability.
Performance Transparency &
Query Optimization
 Idea: Minimize total cost associated with execution since the data may be
replicated in several different sites and a database may be partitioned into
several fragments.

 Decisions:
 Which fragment to access
 Which copy of a fragment to use, if the fragment is replicated
 Which location to use


Performance Transparency &
Query Optimization
 Costs:
 Access time – involved in accessing the physical
data stored on disk.
 Communication time – associated with the
transmission of data among nodes in DDBS.
 CPU time – associated with the processing
overhead of managing distributed transactions.
 Heterogeneity Transparency
 Idea: Shouldn’t matter what DBMS is
running at each site

…
Running Oracle 1 N Running Sybase

Distributed Database
Thank You!