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36 Chapter 2 Database System Concepts and Architecture

2.2 Three-Schema Architecture


and Data Independence
Threc of the four important characteristics of the database approach, listed in
Section 1.3, are (1) use of acatalog to store the database description (schema) so
as to make it self-describing, (2) insulation of programs and data (program-data
and program operation independencc), and (3) support of muitipie user views.
In this section we specify an architecture for database systems, called the
three-schema architecture,' that was proposed to help achieve and visualize
these characteristics. Then we discuss further the concept of data independence.

2.2.1 The Three-Schema Architecture


The goal of the three-schema architecture, illustrated in Figure 2.2, is to separate
the user applications from the physical database. In this architecture, schemas can
be defined at the following three levels:
1. The internal leve< has an internal schema, which describes the physical
storage structure of the database. The internal schema uses a physical data
model and describes the complete details of data storage and access paths for
the database.

Figure 2.2
The three-schema End Users
.architecture

Extemal Extena
External Level
View

External/Conceptual
Mapping
ConceptualLevel Conceptuall'Sciena
Conceptual/lnternal
Mapping
Internal Level temaSchsma

Stored Database

National Standards Institute/ Standards Panning And


This is also known as the ANS/SPARC (Ameican
proposed it (sichritzis &Kug, 1973).
Requirements Committee) architecture,after the committee that
2.2Three-Schema Architecture and Data Independence 37

2. The conceptual level has a conceptual schema, which describes the structure
of the whole database fora communityof users. The conceptual schema hides
the detailsof physical storage structures and concentrates on describing enti
ties, data types, relationships, user operations, and constraints. Usually, a rep
resentational data model is used to describe the conceptual schema when a
database system is implemented. This implementation conceptual schema is
often based on a conceptual schema design in a high-level data model.
3. The external or view level includes a number of external schemas or user
views. Each external schema describes the part of the database that a partic
ular user group is interested in and hides the rest of the database from that
user group. Asin the previous level,each external schema is typically imple
mented using arepresentational data model, possibly based on an external
schema design in a high-level conceptual data model.
The three-schema architecture is a convenient tool with which the user can visual
ize the schema levels in a database system. Most DBMSs do not separate the three
levels completely and explicitly, but they support the three-schema architecture to
eextent. Someolder DBMSs may include physical-level details in the concep
tual schema. The three-level ANSIarchitecture has an important place in database
technology development because it clearly separates the users' external level, the
database's conceptual level, and the internal storage level for desigaing a database.
It is very much applicable in the design of DBMSs, even today. In most DBMSs that
support user views, external schemas are specified in the same data model that
describes the conceptual-level information (for example, a relational DBMSlike
Oracle or SQLServer uses SQL for this).
Notice that the three schemas are only descriptions of data; the actual data is stored
at the physical level only. In the three-schema architecture, each user group reters
to its own external schema. Hence, the DBMS must transform a request specified
on an external schema into arequest against the conceptual schema, and then into
arequest on the internal schema for processing over the stored database. If the
request is adatabase retrieval, the data extracted fromthe stored database must be
reformatted to match the user's external view. The processes of transforming
requests and results between levels are called mappings. These mappings may be
e-con_uming, so some DBMSS-especially those that are meant to support small
databases-do not support external views. Even in such systems, however, it i
essary to transform requests between the conceptual and internal levels.
241 24
DEMS The
Database
Corert

System
Werades

Envirorment

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