Database Allocation in a Distributed Environment: Incorporating a Concurrency Control Mechanism and Queuing Costs

This research investigates the problem of allocating database fragments across a set of computers connected by a communication network. A mathematical model is presented to aid designers in the development of distributed database systems. The model takes into account the pattern of usage of the databases, communication costs in the network, delays due to queuing of data requests, costs for maintaining consistency among the various copies of a database, and storage costs. A solution procedure based on Lagrangian relaxation is proposed to solve the model. Computational results are reported along with several useful observations. The model is applicable to organizations that are considering migration from a centralized to a distributed computing environment.