The implementation and performance of compressed databases

Abstract

In this paper, we show how compression can be integrated into a relational database system. Specifically, we describe how the storage manager, the query execution engine, and the query optimizer of a database system can be extended to deal with compressed data. Our main result is that compression can significantly improve the response time of queries if very light-weight compression techniques are used. We will present such light-weight compression techniques and give the results of running the TPC-D benchmark on a so compressed database and a non-compressed database using the AODB database system, an experimental database system that was developed at the Universities of Mannheim and Passau. Our benchmark results demonstrate that compression indeed offers high performance gains (up to 50%) for IO-intensive queries and moderate gains for CPU-intensive queries. Compression can, however, also increase the running time of certain update operations. In all, we recommend to extend today's database systems with light-weight compression techniques and to make extensive use of this feature.