DISTRIBUTED DATABASES (Professional Elective - V) IV Year B.Tech. IT I-Sem JNTUH R-18

1. Compare and contrast distributed database systems (DDBS) with centralized database systems, highlighting the advantages and limitations of each.

2. Analyze the key problem areas in distributed database design, such as data fragmentation, query processing, and transaction management.

3. Explain the different architectural models for DDBMS, including client-server, peer-to-peer, and hybrid models, and discuss their suitability for different applications.

4. Evaluate various alternative design strategies for distributed databases, considering factors like data access patterns, fault tolerance, and performance.

5. Discuss the concept of data fragmentation in DDBMS and explain different types of fragmentation (horizontal, vertical, and hybrid) with their advantages and disadvantages.

Unit - II: Query Processing and Optimization

1. Describe the objective of query processing in a distributed database system and explain the different layers involved in processing distributed queries.

2. Analyze the process of query decomposition in DDBMS, where a global query is broken down into sub-queries for execution on different nodes.

3. Compare and contrast centralized and distributed query optimization techniques, highlighting the challenges and considerations in optimizing distributed queries.

4. Explain common distributed query optimization algorithms like greedy and dynamic programming approaches, discussing their strengths and weaknesses.

5. Evaluate the importance of query optimization in DDBMS performance and discuss optimization strategies for different types of queries (e.g., selections, joins, aggregations).

Unit - III: Transaction Management

1. Define the properties of a transaction (ACID) and explain the importance of transaction management in ensuring data consistency in a distributed environment.

2. Classify different types of transactions based on their characteristics (read-write, read-only, etc.) and analyze their impact on concurrency control mechanisms.

3. Explain the concept of concurrency control in DDBMS and discuss various concurrency control mechanisms, such as locking and timestamps, to prevent conflicts and ensure serializability.

4. Compare and contrast different concurrency control algorithms like two-phase locking, timestamp-based concurrency control, and optimistic concurrency control.

5. Analyze the challenges of deadlock management in distributed transactions and discuss recovery techniques for handling transaction failures and ensuring data integrity.

Unit - IV: Distributed DBMS Reliability and Parallel Systems

1. Explain the concepts of reliability and fault tolerance in distributed systems and discuss their importance for ensuring continuous operation and data availability in DDBMS.

2. Analyze different types of failures that can occur in distributed databases (site failures, network partitions, etc.) and explain local and distributed reliability protocols for recovering from failures.

3. Describe the architecture of parallel database systems and explain how parallelism can be leveraged to improve query processing performance in DDBMS.

4. Discuss parallel data placement strategies for efficiently accessing and distributing data across multiple processing nodes in a parallel database system.

5. Analyze the concept of load balancing in parallel databases and explain techniques for dynamically distributing workload across processing nodes to optimize performance.

Unit - V: Distributed Object Databases and Object-Oriented Data Models

1. Introduce the fundamental concepts and models of object-oriented databases and compare them to traditional relational databases.

2. Discuss the design issues and architectural considerations for distributed object database management systems (ODBMS).

3. Explain how object management and distributed object storage are implemented in ODBMS, allowing for persistent storage and manipulation of complex object structures.

4. Analyze the challenges and potential benefits of distributed object query processing compared to traditional query processing in relational databases.

5. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of ODBMS compared to object-relational databases (ORDBMS) and discuss scenarios where one might be preferred over the other.