Sharded Database XML Support via Transportable Binary XML
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current sharded database management systems lack support for opaque data types like XMLType, leading to performance issues and incomplete sharding functionality due to centralized architecture and limited support for large objects, making it difficult to maintain and query XML data across multiple database servers.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of Transportable Binary XML (TBX) storage, which allows XML data to be stored in a self-contained binary format, enabling its manipulation, query, and generation across shards in a sharded DBMS, along with the introduction of new operators to push XML queries down to shards and convert between XML and TBX formats, ensuring XML data can be queried and returned in a supported format.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If XMLType is stored as a centralized opaque data type in a sharded database, then XML data can be stored and retrieved, but performance deteriorates and sharding functionality becomes incomplete due to the centralized architecture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized XMLType storage into distributed TBX format storage across multiple shards. Each shard independently stores and manages XML data in TBX format, eliminating the single-point bottleneck of centralized XMLType storage while maintaining data integrity through the self-contained nature of TBX format.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces TBX format as an intermediary between XML data and the sharded database system. TBX serves as a translation layer that converts XML into a binary format suitable for distributed storage, enabling shards to handle XML data without requiring centralized XMLType interpretation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If XMLType with centralized architecture is used across multiple database servers, then XML data can be maintained, but the system complexity increases and scalability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes XML data self-service by embedding the token dictionary within each TBX format object. Each XML object becomes self-contained with its own interpretation resources, eliminating the need for external centralized XML token dictionaries and enabling independent handling across distributed shards.
3Quantity of substance
If opaque data types are propagated over shards, then XML data can be distributed, but the loss of information occurs due to limited LOB support in sharded systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a faithful binary copy of XML data in TBX format that preserves all information. The TBX format captures the complete XML structure, including the token dictionary, enabling exact replication and distribution across shards without information loss.
Data Source
AI summary
When a coordinator of a sharded DBMS receives from a client a query that has an XML operator that references a column in a sharded table and returns an XML image having an XML image type, then the coordinator issues a remote query that uses a new operator to ensure that the shard returns a TBX BLOB having a TBX type. In response to receiving the remote query with the new operator, each shard extracts a binary large object (BLOB) out of the XML image at the shard and returns the TBX BLOB data to the coordinator. In addition, the sharded DBMS provides a make-XML operator that the coordinator uses to work with the TBX BLOB received from each shard and recreate an XML type image, which is the result that the client expects.