16760269
Implementing XML Schema inside a relational database
XML Schema has emerged as a promising data model that unites structured and unstructured content. The Oracle database has led the commercial database community in integrating support for XML Schema inside an enterprise data server. The foundation for this was laid with the absorption of the SQL:1999 'objectrelational' type system in the database, which provided the necessary hierarchical abstractions necessary for representing XML. We look at how XML Schemas have been implemented in Oracle XML DB, what optimizations are available to cover the diverse use-cases for schema-based XML storage and retrieval, and how this technology contributes to richer data management.
37654158
XML Schemas in Oracle XML DB
The W3C XML Scheme language is becomimg increasingly popular for expressing the data model for XML documents. It is a powerful language that incorporates both strutural and datatype modeling features. There are many benefits to storing XML Schema compliant data in a database system, including better queryability, optimied updates and stronger validation. However, the fidelity of the XML document cannot be sacrificed. Thus, the fundamental problem facing database implementers is: how can XML Schemes be mapped to relational (and object-relational) database without losing schema semantics or data-fidelity? In this paper, we present the Oracle XML DB solution for a flexible mapping of XML Schemas to object-relational database. It preserves document fidelity, including ordering, namespaces, comments, processing instructions etc., and handles all the XML Schema semantics including cyclic definitions, dervations (extension and restriction), and wildcards. We also discuss various query and update optimiations that involve rewriting XPath operations to directly operate on the underlying relational data.
2969941
SmartNotes: Implicit Labeling of Meeting Data through User Note-Taking and Browsing
We have implemented SmartNotes, a system that automatically acquires labeled meeting data as users take notes during meetings and browse the notes afterwards. Such data can enable meeting understanding components such as topic and action item detectors to automatically improve their performance over a sequence of meetings. The SmartNotes system consists of a laptop based note taking application, and a web based note retrieval system. We shall demonstrate the functionalities of this system, and will also demonstrate the labeled data obtained during typical meetings and browsing sessions.
222765
Minimum energy paths for reliable communication in multi-hop wireless networks
Current algorithms for minimum-energy routing in wireless networks typically select minimum-cost multi-hop paths. In scenarios where the transmission power is fixed, each link has the same cost and the minimum-hop path is selected. In situations where the transmission power can be varied with the distance of the link, the link cost is higher for longer hops; the energy-aware routing algorithms select a path with a large number of small-distance hops. In this paper, we argue that such a formulation based solely on the energy spent in a single transmission is misleading --- the proper metric should include the total energy (including that expended for any retransmissions necessary) spent in reliably delivering the packet to its final destination.We first study how link error rates affect this retransmission-aware metric, and how it leads to an efficient choice between a path with a large number of short-distance hops and another with a smaller number of large-distance hops. Such studies motivate the definition of a link cost that is a function of both the energy required for a single transmission attempt across the link and the link error rate. This cost function captures the cumulative energy expended in reliable data transfer, for both reliable and unreliable link layers. Finally, through detailed simulations, we show that our schemes can lead to upto 30-70% energy savings over best known current schemes, under realistic environments.
8594061
Data sharing and recovery in gigabit-networked databases
Major advances in optical fiber transmission and switching technology have enabled the development of very high speed networks with data rates of the order of gigabits per second. It is anticipated that in the future, wide area gigabit networks will interconnect database servers around the globe creating extremely powerful distributed information systems. In this paper, we examine the implications of such a high speed network on data access and sharing techniques and propose a lock-based concurrency control protocol and a log-based recovery protocol that ensures data consistency in gigabit-networked databases. Both protocols exploit the characteristics of a gigabit network to enhance the performance of the database system and, in particular, the fact that the size of the message is less of a concern than the number of sequential phases of message passing.
3115897
A simple approximation for modeling nonstationary queues
Evaluation of the behavior of queues with nonstationary arrival processes is of importance in several applications including communication networks. However, the analysis of nonstationary queues is in general computationally complex and seldom produces closed form expressions. Thus approximation methods may be more appropriate. The pointwise stationary fluid flow approximation (PSFFA) for determining the mean queue length of nonstationary queues is presented. The PSFFA combines steady state queueing results with a simple fluid flow model to develop a single nonlinear differential equation model of the queue. Numerical integration techniques are used to solve the PSFFA model and the method is illustrated by several examples. The power of this approach is that it can handle very general queueing systems.
3132692
Distributed Database Systems in High-Speed Wide-Area Networks
The issues involved in developing a distributed database system (DDBS) in a high-speed environment are discussed. The inadequacy of existing database protocols in utilizing the gigabit network is described. A concurrency control protocol that performs better than traditional DDBSs in high-speed networks is developed. Both analytical and simulation results are presented. The focus is on the concurrency control aspect of DDBS since this protocol is at the heart of the overall functioning of the distributed system. >