A combined communication network design and file allocation for distributed databases
Nicholas George Khabbaz · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · 1980
The combined problem of communication network design and file allocation for distributed databases is addressed. The network topologies are restricted to be maximally connected and of minimal diameter. The motivations for such topologies have been stated in previous work on network design: enhancement of network reliability and reduction of communication cost and delay. A model is proposed to find an optimal communication network and allocation of files that minimize the total cost of file storage and of the communication channels. The model takes into consideration network reliability, file availability and communication delay constraints. It was shown that the network reliability constraint puts a lower bound (kappa)(,m) on the network connectivity (kappa), the file availability constraints put lower bounds on the number of copies of each file, and the delay constraints put lower bounds on the channel capacities. A heuristic algorithm to solve the model is then described and some results are presented. The results show that, in some cases, the optimal solution is obtained when (kappa) = (kappa)(,m). In other cases, however, increasing (kappa) results in the reduction of the total cost and the improvement of both the network reliability and the file availability.