Query Constraint Keywords for Federated Query Failure

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Federated database systems face inefficiencies in query execution due to the inability to enforce constraints at the federated system, leading to unnecessary data transfer and resource wastage when constraints are violated.

Innovation Solution

Introduce a keyword in the query language to express constraints, allowing query failure if the constraint is not satisfied, enabling query rewriting and execution to enforce constraints at the federated system, reducing data transfer by evaluating constraints remotely.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of energy

If constraints are not enforced at the federated system, then query execution can proceed without additional constraint checking, but data transfer and resource usage increase unnecessarily when constraints are violated

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresource usageVSAvoidconstraint enforcement mechanism
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of energyVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by introducing a keyword in the query language that enables constraint enforcement to be performed at the federated system before data transfer occurs. This allows the system to check constraints remotely and prevent unnecessary data transfer when constraints would be violated, thereby reducing resource usage while maintaining the ability to enforce constraints through the keyword mechanism.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Quantity of substance

If constraints are enforced at the federated system, then data transfer can be reduced by evaluating constraints remotely, but query language complexity increases due to the new keyword

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata transfer volumeVSAvoidquery language
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies the extraction principle by isolating the constraint enforcement functionality into a separate keyword element within the query language. This keyword can be extracted and processed independently by the federated system, allowing constraint evaluation to be separated from the main query processing logic. This enables remote constraint evaluation to reduce data transfer volume while keeping the query language extension minimal and manageable.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Reliability

If constraints are not enforced remotely, then query execution remains simple, but flawed queries can execute causing wasted resources

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequery execution reliabilityVSAvoidquery execution simplicity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies feedback by introducing a keyword mechanism that provides immediate feedback to the query executor about constraint satisfaction. When a constraint is violated, the federated system can return feedback information indicating the violation, allowing the query execution process to terminate early and prevent wasted resources on flawed queries. This maintains relative simplicity in query execution while significantly improving reliability through the feedback mechanism.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentEP4660830A1Query language representations of constraints useable to cause query failure
Publication Date: 2025.12.10 SAP SE
  • EP4660830A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4660830A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4660830A1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

Techniques and solutions are provided for implementing query constraints. A keyword in a query language is provided that indicates the presence of a constraint. During query execution, if the constraint is not satisfied, the query can be terminated/caused to fail. In some cases, the keyword is introduced into a query by a query optimizer. In a specific example, the keyword is introduced as part of optimizing a query where at least some query operations are performed using a federated database system. The keyword indicating the constraint can be included in a query language statement and sent to the federated database system for execution. If the constraint is not satisfied, the federated database system can send a failure notification to the main database system.