Computer Science (COMP) 418
Distributed and Multimedia Databases and Database Tuning (Revision 1)

Revision 1 closed, replaced by current version.

Delivery mode: Individualized study online.
Credits: 3 - Science
Prerequisite: COMP 378. Note: Students who are concerned about not meeting the prerequisites for this course are encouraged to contact the course coordinator before registering.
Centre: School of Computing and Information Systems
Course Sample: Comp 418 Sample
Challenge for Credit: COMP 418 has a Challenge for Credit option

>> Overview | Outline | Evaluation | Course Materials | Special Course Features
>> Course Fees | Course Availability

Overview

Computer Science 418: Distributed and Multimedia Database Systems and Database Tuning deals with two broad topics: new database directions and database tuning. The new directions covered in this course involve distributed database systems and multimedia databases. The centralized relational database systems, which currently dominate the market, have some limitations and are gradually giving way to, or being extended to cope with, distributed and multimedia databases.

Objectives

After completing the course, the student should be able to:
  • Discuss and illustrate major types of distributed Database Management Systems (DBMS) and their basic concepts.
  • Explain the steps a database administrator (DBA) would follow to construct a DDBMS from a centralized DBMS.
  • Discuss the basic building blocks of a distributed DBMS.
  • Describe how to construct a relational schema for every non-relational DBMS participating in a distributed DBMS, and how to enforce business rules and security.
  • Explain how a distributed DBMS controls different components to access data, and discuss related concepts such as global transaction conversion, control models, motivations for the three types of data independence, and transaction optimization.
  • Discuss a special type of database transaction called "update transaction."
  • Discuss multimedia databases, and how they store temporal data types such as animation, audio and video.
  • Explain how practitioners use several techniques to extend traditional DBMS to support media documents, and how the separation of media document structure from media content opens the way for distributed multimedia DBMS.
  • Explain the concept of database tuning.
  • Discuss tuning issues related to common underlying components of all database systems.
  • Discuss several tuning principles and techniques for indexes.
  • Describe and use techniques to improve performance of relational database systems.
  • Analyse relational database applications with special concentration on the design of relations, queries, procedures and connections.
  • Describe and use techniques to improve performance of object-oriented database systems.
  • Elaborate on the shortcomings of centralized relational database systems, and how to overcome these shortcomings.

Outline

Computer Science 418 consists of the eleven units listed below.

  • Unit 1 Distributed Databases: Basic Principles
  • Unit 2 The Software Building Blocks for Distributed DBMS
  • Unit 3 Distributed Databases: Designing Concepts
  • Unit 4 Distributed Transactions: Designing Concepts
  • Unit 5 Distributed Transactions: Processing Concepts
  • Unit 6 Multimedia Databases
  • Unit 7 Database Tuning: Basic Concepts and Terminology
  • Unit 8 Common Tuning Considerations
  • Unit 9 Tuning Indexes for Fast Accessing
  • Unit 10 Relational Database Tuning
  • Unit 11 Object-Oriented Database Tuning

Evaluation

To receive credit for COMP 418, students must achieve a course composite grade of at least "D" (50 percent) (a grade of at least 50 percent on the invigilated final examination and an average grade of 50 percent on the assignments and a grade of at least 50 percent on the project). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Project Final Exam Total
10% 15% 15% 20% 40% 100%

Course Materials

Textbooks

Larson, James A. 1995. Database Directions: From Relational to Distributed, Multimedia and Object-Oriented Database Systems. Prentice Hall Professional Technical References.

Shasha, Dennis. 1994. Database Tuning: A Principled Approach. Prentice Hall Professional Technical References.

Supplementary Reading

Ozsu, M. Tamer and Patrick Valduriez. 1999. Principles of Distributed Database Systems.2nd edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Engineering, Science and Math.

Martin, James and Joseph Leben. 1996. Client/Server Databases: Enterprise Computing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference.

Kumar, Vijay. 1996. Performance of Concurrency Control Mechanisms in Centralized Data. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Engineering, Science and Math.

Informix Software, Inc. 1997. Evolution of the High Performance Database. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference.

Schneider, Robert and Jeffrey R. Garbus. 1999. Optimizing SQL Server 7: Planning and Building a High-Performance Database. 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference.

Zantinge, Dolf and Peter Adriaans. 1996. Data Mining. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Shuey, Richard, David L. Spooner and Ophir Frieder. 1997. The Architecture of Distributed Computer Systems. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Special Course Features

Completion of the course requires access to an IBM compatible PC using Windows® and to the World Wide Web. The delivery of Computer Science 418 is dependent upon computer mediated communications. Students will be required to complete assignments and activities on the School of Computing Information Systems Web server and use online resources.

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.

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New created October 12, 1999.
This page was updated by G. Zahara