A Mechanism for Managing the Buffer Pool in a Relational Database System Using the Hot Set Model

Abstract

The design of the buffer manager in a Relational Database Management System can significantly affect the overall performance of the system. Thrashing is a common phenomenon that occurs in these systems due to the combination of a regular pattern of accesses made by a process and the competing requests for buffer resources made by concurrently executing processes. In this paper, we present a buffer management algorithm based on a model of database requests. A discussion of problems encountered by traditional methods for buffer management as well as extensions to the algorithm are also presented.