A synchronized design technique for efficient data distribution

One of the important features of database fragmentation and allocation techniques is the fact that they depend not only on the entries of a database relation, but also on their empirical frequencies of use. Distributed processing is an effective way to improve performance of database systems. However, for a Distributed Database System (DDBS) to function efficiently, fragments of the database need to be allocated carefully at various sites across the relevant communications network. Therefore, fragmentation and proper allocation of fragments across network sites is considered as a key research area in distributed database environment. However, fragments allocation to the most appropriate sites is not an easy task to perform. This paper proposes a synchronized horizontal fragmentation, replication and allocation model that adopts a new approach to horizontally fragment a database relation based on attribute retrieval and update frequency to find an optimal solution for the allocation problem. A heuristic technique to satisfy horizontal fragmentation and allocation using a cost model to minimize the total cost of distribution is developed. Experimental results are consistent with the hypothesis and confirm that the proposed model can efficiently solve dynamic fragmentation and allocation problem in a distributed relational database environment. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.