Query Processing in Highly Distributed Environments

This paper will demonstrate a novel method for consolidating data in an engineered hypercube network for the purpose of optimizing query processing. Query processing typically calls for merging data collected from a small subset of server nodes in a network. This poses the problem of managing efficiently the exchange of data between processing nodes to complete some relational data operation. The method developed here is designed to minimize data transfer, measured as the product of data quantity and network distance, by delegating the processing to a node that is relatively central to the subset. A hypercube not only supports simple computation of network distance between nodes, but also allows for identifying a node to serve as the center for any data consolidation operations. We will show how the consolidation process can be performed by selecting a subgraph of a complex network to simplify the selection of a central node and thus facilitate the computations required. We will also show a prototype implementation of a hypercube using Software-Defined Networking to support query optimization in a distributed heterogeneous database system, making use of network distance information and data quantity.