Buffer Pool Aware Query Optimization

With the advent of 64-bit processors, large main memories are set to become very common. This in turn translates to larger buffer pool configurations in database servers. Query optimizers however, currently assume all data is disk resident while optimizing queries. This assumption will no longer be valid when buffer pools become 100’s of gigabytes in size. In this paper we examine how data presence in the buffer pool can affect the choice of query plans in an optimizer. We examine the possible benefits of buffer-pool aware query optimization and propose a generic architecture for implementing such an optimizer. 1