Authors
Caetano Sauer, Peter A Boncz, Yannis Chronis, Jan Finis, Stefan Halfpap, Viktor Leis, Thomas Neumann, Anisoara Nica, Knut Stolze, Marcin Zukowski
Journal
Database Indexing and Query Processing
Pages
92
Description
Selective queries are quite common in large-scale data analytics; for example, when drilling down into a specific customer in a dashboard. Traditionally, selective queries are optimized by creating secondary indexes. However, because of their large size, expensive maintenance, and difficulty to tune and automate, indexes are typically not used in modern cloud data warehouses. Instead, such systems rely mostly on full table scans and lightweight optimizations like min/max filtering, whose effectiveness depends heavily on the data layout and value distributions. It is also difficult to predict whether certain columns will be targeted by selective queries or not, which may preclude an upfront decision to create indexes. In this working group, we sketched a general indexing framework called SPA (Smooth Predicate Acceleration). It optimizes selective queries automatically, by adaptively indexing subsets of data in an incremental and workload-driven manner. It makes fine-granular decisions and continuously monitors their benefit, dynamically allocating an optimization budget in a way that bounds the additional cost of indexing. Furthermore, it guarantees a performance improvement in the cases where indexes—potentially partial ones—prove to be beneficial. On the other hand, when indexes lose their benefit due to a shifting workload, they are also gradually deconstructed in favor of optimizations that accommodate recent trends.
Scholar articles
C Sauer, PA Boncz, Y Chronis, J Finis, S Halfpap… - Database Indexing and Query Processing