CS 542 Distributed Database Systems
Prof. Bharat Bhargava
 

Assignment 1
Due: January 17, 2013

Written homework assignments are due at the start of class on the due date.

 

Note: The points of every question are listed. Answer briefly.

Q1: Write one page summary of ideas in the three papers identifying the problem and the solution. (10 points)
        Three papers are "The Raid Distributed Database System", "Concurrency Control in Database Systems" and "Building Distributed Database Systems".

Q2: What are the different performance criteria for evaluating concurrency control algorithms? (10 points)

Q3: Give examples of transaction executions that lead to (10 points)
            a) lost update
            b) dirty read

Q4: What makes the problems in a distributed database system different (or complex) as compared to the problems in a single site system? (10 points)

Q5: Is there any sense in running a (10 points)
            a) 'read only' transaction?
            b) 'write only' transaction?

Q6: Discuss the role of the following issues in distributed database system architecture: (10 points)
           (a) autonomy
           (b) heterogeneity
           (c) scalability.