UNIT-1

CHAPTER 1.1
(Database System Architecture) and its Levels

DBMS Architecture

Database management systems architecture will help us understand the components of the
database system and the relation among them.

The architecture of DBMS depends on the computer system on which it runs. For example, in
a client-server DBMS architecture, the database systems at the server machine can run
several requests made by the client machine. We will understand this communication with the
help of diagrams.

Types of DBMS Architecture

There are three types of DBMS architecture:

1. Single tier architecture

2. Two tier architecture

3. Three tier architecture

1. Single tier architecture

In this type of architecture, the database is readily available on the client machine, any
request made by client doesn’t require a network connection to perform the action on the
database.

For example, let's say you want to fetch the records of employees from the database and the
database is available on your computer system, so the request to fetch employee details will
be done by your computer and the records will be fetched from the database by your
computer as well. This type of system is generally referred to as a local database system.
2. Two tier architecture

In two-tier architecture, the Database system is present at the server machine and the DBMS
application is present at the client machine, these two machines are connected with each other
through a reliable network as shown in the above diagram.

Whenever a client machine makes a request to access the database present at the server using
a query language like sql, the server performs the request on the database and returns the
result back to the client. The application connection interfaces such as JDBC, ODBC are used
for the interaction between server and client.
3. Three tier architecture

In three-tier architecture, another layer is present between the client machine and server
machine. In this architecture, the client application doesn’t communicate directly with the
database systems present at the server machine, rather the client application communicates
with the server application and the server application internally communicates with the
database system present at the server.

Three-level ANSI SPARC Database Architecture

The Architecture of most of the commercial dbms available today is mostly based on this
ANSI-SPARC database architecture.
ANSI SPARC THREE-TIER architecture has main three levels:

1. Internal Level
2. Conceptual Level
3. External Level

These three levels provide data abstraction ;means hide the low level complexities from end
users .

A database system should be efficient in performance and convenient in use.

Using these three levels,it is possible to use complex structures at the internal level for
efficient operations and to provide a simpler convenient interface at the external level.

1. Internal level:
● This is the lowest level of data abstraction.
● It describes How the data are actually stored on storage devices.
● It is also known as physical level.
● It provides an internal view of physical storage of data.
● It deals with complex low level data structures, file structures and access methods in
detail.
● It also deals with Data Compression and Encryption techniques, if used.
2. Conceptual level:
● This is the next higher level than the internal level of data abstraction.
● It describes What data is stored in the database and What relationships exist among
those data.
● It is also known as Logical level.
● It hides low level complexities of physical storage.
● Database administrators and designers work at this level to determine What data to
keep in the database.
● Application developers also work on this level.
3. External Level:
● This is the highest level of data abstraction.
● It describes only part of the entire database that an end user is concerned about.
● It is also known as a view level.
● End users need to access only part of the database rather than the entire database.
● Different users need different views of the database. And so, there can be many view
level abstractions of the same database.
Advantages of Three-tier Architecture:
● The main objective of it is to provide data abstraction.
● Same data can be accessed by different users with different customized views.
● The user is not concerned about the physical data storage details.
● Physical storage structure can be changed without requiring changes in internal
structure of the database as well as users view.
● Conceptual structure of the database can be changed without affecting end users.
Objective of the Three Level Architecture

The objective of the three level architecture is to separate each user’s view of the database
from the Way the database is physically represented. There are several reasons why this
separation is desirable:

 Each user should be able to access the same data, but have a different customized
view of the data. Each user should be able to change the way he or she views the data,
and this change should not affect other users.
  Users should not have to deal directly with physical database storage details, such as
indexing or hashing. In other words a user’s interaction with the database should be
independent of storage considerations.
 The Database Administrator(DBA) should be able to change the database storage
structures without affecting the user’s views.
 . The internal structure of the database should be unaffected by changes to the
physical aspects of storage, such as the changeover to a new storage device.
 . The DBA should be able to change the conceptual structure of the database without
affecting all users.

OTHER REFRENCES

 DBMS Architecture (beginnersbook.com)

 Three Level Architecture of Database (tutorialspoint.com)

 Three-level ANSI SPARC Database Architecture | DBMS | Tutorialink.com

 https://blog.oureducation.in/basic-operational-concepts-computer-organization/#!

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SUGGESTED BOOK REFERENCES

1. J. Date, “An Introduction to DatabaseSystems”, Addison Wesley.

2. Navathe,“Fundamentals of Database System”, The Benjamin / Cummings Publishing

Co.

3. Korth and Silberschatz Abraham, “DatabaseSystem Concepts”, McGraw Hall.