Modeling the Nonlinear Nature of Response Time in the Vertical Fragmentation Design of Distributed Databases

The generalized use of the Internet has facilitated the implementation of distributed database (DDB) systems, which are becoming increasingly common-place. Unfortunately, though there exist many models for optimizing the design of DDBs (i.e., the distribution of data), they usually seek to optimize the transmission and processing costs of queries and overlook the delays incurred by their transmission and processing, which can be a major concern for Internet-based systems. In this paper a mathematical model is presented, which describes the behavior of a DDB with vertical fragmentation and permits to optimize its design taking into account the roundtrip response time (query transmission time, query processing time, and response transmission time).