Adaptive Screening for Compressed Data Block Retrieval

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing database systems face inefficiencies in storage and retrieval of individually accessible data units due to limitations in compression techniques and indexing methods, which result in high storage requirements and slow access times.

Innovation Solution

The system compresses multiple records into blocks, allowing for efficient compression and indexing, using adaptive screening data structures and hierarchical indexing to quickly locate and retrieve records without the need for full decompression, thereby reducing storage needs and access time.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If records are compressed individually, then storage space is reduced, but compression ratio is limited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestorage spaceVSAvoidcompression ratio
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple individual records into a single compressed block, allowing the compression algorithm to work on aggregated data rather than isolated records. This merging approach enables higher compression ratios because the algorithm can identify and eliminate redundancies across record boundaries, while still maintaining the ability to retrieve individual records through selective decompression of the block.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Quantity of substance

If compression techniques provide high compression ratios, then storage efficiency improves, but the ability to start decompression from arbitrary locations is lost

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestorage efficiencyVSAvoidrandom access capability
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the compressed data into blocks, where each block contains multiple compressed records. The system maintains metadata that maps individual records to their positions within blocks, enabling the decomposition process to start at specific record locations within a block without requiring decompression from the beginning of the entire compressed file. This segmentation preserves random access capability while maintaining high compression ratios.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If an index has an entry for each record, then record location is precise, but index size becomes large

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverecord location precisionVSAvoidindex size
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential indexing information needed for efficient record location, rather than maintaining a complete entry for every single record. The index stores metadata at the block level and uses selective decomposition techniques to locate individual records within blocks, reducing the overall index size while maintaining sufficient precision for record retrieval.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

4Loss of time

If screening data structures are used to avoid decompression, then access time is reduced, but false positives increase when checking multiple structures

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccess timeVSAvoidfalse positive rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of timeVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a dynamic screening mechanism that adaptively manages multiple screening data structures. The system adjusts which screening structures to check based on the query characteristics and maintains false positive rates within acceptable bounds by selectively applying screening at different levels of the data hierarchy. This dynamic approach reduces access time for true positives while controlling the overall false positive rate across multiple screening structures.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP3550441B1Managing storage of individually accessible data units
Publication Date: 2023.07.26 AB INITIO TECHNOLOGY LLC
  • EP3550441B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3550441B1 patent drawingFigure 2A
  • EP3550441B1 patent drawingFigure 2B

AI summary

Managing data includes: receiving at least one group of individually accessible data units, each data unit identified by a key value, with key values of the received data units being sorted; and processing the data units for storage in a data storage system. The processing includes: storing a plurality of blocks of data; and providing an index that includes an entry for each of the blocks; and generating a plurality of screening data structures associated with the stored blocks for determining a possibility that a data unit that includes a given key value was included in the group of individually accessible data units, including a first screening data structure for screening a first set of one or more of the plurality of blocks and a second screening data structure for screening a second set of one or more of the plurality of blocks.