Virtual ACL Nodes for Efficient Data Ingestion
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Solution Overview
Problem
The ingestion and indexing of large data sets with access control lists (ACLs) become excessively time-consuming as the number of records and ACLs grows, due to the need to index numerous individual entities, leading to inefficient processing times.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of virtual ACL nodes that are common to multiple records, allowing for the optimization and indexing of ACLs separately from data records, reducing the number of index values required and speeding up ingestion by replacing original ACLs with virtual ACL nodes, while maintaining acceptable searching speeds through efficient query transformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individual ACLs are indexed for each record, then access control accuracy is improved, but indexing time and processing duration increase excessively
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple individual ACLs that share common authorized entities are merged into a single virtual ACL node. Instead of creating separate index entries for each record's ACL, the system combines ACLs with identical or overlapping authorized entities into one virtual representation, significantly reducing the total number of index values while preserving access control accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
A virtual ACL node serves multiple records simultaneously, acting as a universal access control representation. Rather than having dedicated ACL index entries for each individual record, a single virtual ACL node can represent the access control requirements for multiple records that share the same authorized entities, improving indexing efficiency without sacrificing security.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the number of ACLs and authorized entities grows with data volume, then access control coverage is improved, but ingestion and indexing productivity decrease
Solution Approach 1:
As data volume grows and more ACLs are created, the system automatically merges ACLs with common authorized entities into virtual nodes. This dynamic consolidation ensures that access control coverage expands with data volume while indexing productivity is maintained, because the number of index values grows much more slowly than the number of individual records.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of copying and storing complete ACL definitions for each record in the index, the system creates lightweight virtual ACL node references that point to the shared authorized entities. This copying approach allows comprehensive access control coverage across millions of records while keeping the index size and ingestion time manageable.
3Productivity
If virtual ACL nodes are used to reduce index values, then indexing speed is improved, but query transformation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a query transformation layer that acts as an intermediary between the user's original query and the virtualized index structure. This mediator automatically resolves virtual ACL node references back to the underlying authorized entities during query processing, making the complexity transparent to users while maintaining high indexing speed benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The query transformation is performed as a preliminary step before actual search execution. By pre-resolving virtual ACL node references and transforming the query structure in advance, the system prepares optimized search queries that can efficiently utilize the virtualized index without adding complexity during the critical search execution phase.
Data Source
AI summary
Large data sets that use ACLS can be efficiently ingested into a search index and subsequently searched. The ingestion may replace the ACLS of records with virtual ACL nodes that are common to a number of individual records, and a virtual ACL node to ACL entities index is provided for use in searching the records with the virtual ACL nodes.