Cost-Based Query Optimization in Centralized Relational Databases

Query optimization is the most significant factor for any centralized relational database management system (RDBMS) that reduces the total execution time of a query. Query optimization is the process of executing a SQL (Structured Query Language) query in relational databases to determine the most efficient way to execute a given query by considering the possible query plans. The goal of query optimization is to optimize the given query for the sake of efficiency. Cost-based query optimization compares different strategies based on relative costs (amount of time that the query needs to run) and selects and executes one that minimizes the cost. The cost of a strategy is just an estimate based on how many estimated CPU and I/O resources that the query will use. In this paper, cost is considered by counting number of disk accesses for each query plan because disk access tends to be the dominant cost in query processing for centralized relational databases.