Introductionto the top

Over the last 30 years in the field of theory of database systems it was conducted a series of extremely productive researches. The obtained results may quite be considered as the most important achievement of informatics for the period. Databases are become the basis of information systems and radically changed the working methods of many organizations. In particular, in recent years the development of databases technology reduced to the creation of very powerful and handy in using the systems. Thanks to this database systems became available for a wide range of users. But, unfortunately, seeming simplicity of such systems has contributed to the fact that users have to create their own databases and applications, not having sufficient knowledge about how to design effective systems that often led to non-productive costs of resources and poor results.

The volume of data is increasing every year with incredible speed. Now the storing video and photography from space is a very topical problem. Such information requires large data warehouses, as well as high-speed access.

With regard to Microsoft SQL Server data access methods constantly evolving. Over the last 20 years of the development of databases turned 7 methods of data access. The last of these is Microsoft ADO.NET.

If there is a wide choice of available data sources ADO.NET should be able to support many data sources. Each such data source can have its own characteristics or a set of opportunities. Therefore ADO.NET supports the model of providers. The data provider for a particular source in ADO.NET can be defined as a set of classes in the space of names, which created specifically for this particular data source. So, for each individual source of data special data provider .NET is needed.

.NET Data Providers
Figure 1. Program, ADO.NET, several data sources and several data providers.
(Animation. Number of frames - 17, recycles - endlessly, size - 10 726 bytes)

The Microsoft SQL Server database supports multiple data providers .NET: SQL Client .NET Data Provider, OLE DB .NET Data Provider, ODBC .NET Data Provider and SQL XML .NET Data Provider (to work with XML-data):

MS SQL Server supported Data Providers
Figure 2. Data providers, supported by MS SQL Server.

Urgencyto the top

Since MS SQL Server supports multiple data providers, it is arise the natural question: which of these is better or preferable? After all, providing high speed data access is one of the most important characteristics of a particular data provider. Therefore, in the Master's work various experiments over the SQL, OLE DB and ODBC data providers will be carried out to identify their strengths and weaknesses. These experiments will determine depending on productivity, speed of access and speed connection to the database SQL Server.

Goals and objectivesto the top

Research methods of data access Microsoft SQL Server define the following goal: identification and justification for optimum connectivity speed and access speed data provider database MS SQL Server.

To achieve the assigned goal in the Master's work it is set to solve such tasks as:

  1. Researching of characteristics and properties of existing DB Microsoft SQL Server data providers.
  2. Analysis of data caching technology.
  3. Production experiments for the studying of the data.
  4. The research of data MS SQL Server in connected and disconnected state of BD.
  5. Analysis of the received results of experiments and the dependencies definition.
  6. Choosing the optimum data provider on specific criteria.

The data provider research is intended to conduct with using of program testing shell, which will be developed on the programming language Microsoft Visual C# in conjunction with Microsoft .NET Framework technology. Justification of choice of these technologies is in following: since MS SQL Server is the development of Microsoft Corporation, then the maximum productivity can be achieved when using the "native" technologies (CLR, Common Language Runtime .NET). CLR reduces time to transform the types and clears all intermediate levels between the program and database.

For writing and debugging applications free development environment Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express will be used. It comes with a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express database.

Supposed scientific noveltyto the top

The Master's work scientific novelty is considered in MS SQL Server database data providers research into records speed access of various volume tables: 10 records, 1`000 records, 50`000 records and 1`000`000 records. With further study it is possible also to be other queries variants. These experiments will identify optimal data providers for various volume databases that will help in effective applications designing to work with DB, because even before requesting data from the base will already have been known algorithm for optimal access. Also it is scheduled to study connection speed to the MS SQL Server database with the view of the effectiveness work with DB detection in connected or disconnected state, for which it is propose the connections pool studying.

The research and development state reviewto the top

Since the Microsoft SQL Server database is the development of Microsoft Corporation and its source code, algorithms, operation methods are not available, the interest in this DB study by scientists or scientific figures is at a low level at the moment. Search of this topic in Internet showed that only MS SQL Server developers and companies who are working closely with Microsoft and its products study by MS SQL Server research. In connection with this also raises a scientific novelty of the Master's work at the local and national levels.

Leading researchers and direct developers of Microsoft SQL Server database data access methods are:

Desription of resultsto the top

At this time, Master’s work is in the early stage. The search and material studying are under way and it is developed describes of the experiments and its analysis. Preliminary analysis showed that OLE DB .NET Data Provider has higher productivity with small volume tables (up to 10`000 records) than SQL Client .NET Data Provider. And access to the data tables with a large number of records (1`000`000 or more) is effectively to implement using SQL Client .NET Data Provider. The final results of the MS SQL Server data providers research will be available in autumn 2008. If readers are interested in this work, then please contact to its author by E-mail or ICQ     for further information.

The list of used sourcesto the top

  1. Hamilton, Bill. ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook, 2nd Edition, Updated for .NET 3.5, LINQ, and SQL Server 2008. O’Reilly, March 15, 2008. Pages: 980. ISBN-13: 978-0-596-10140-4.
  2. Браст Эндрю Дж., Форте Стивен. Разработка приложений на основе Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005. Мастер-класс. / Пер. с англ. – М.: Издательство «Русская Редакция», 2007. – 880 стр.: ил.
  3. Вилдермьюс, Шон. Практическое использование ADO.NET. Доступ к данным в Internet. : Пер. с англ. – М. : Издательский дом “Вильямс”, 2003. – 288 с. : ил. – Парал. тит. англ.
  4. Малик, Сахил. Microsoft® ADO.NET 2.0 для профессионалов.: Пер. с англ. – М.: ООО «И.Д. Вильямс», 2006. – 560 с.: ил. – Парал. тит. англ.
  5. Сеппа Д. Программирование на Microsoft® ADO.NET 2.0 Мастер-класс. / Пер. с англ. – М.: Издательство «Русская Редакция»; СПб.: Питер, 2007. – 784 стр.: ил.
  6. http://rsdn.ru/?article/db/DBSpeed.xml – "Сравнение скорости доступа к данным (ADO.NET, ADO, ascDB)". Author: Stanislav Mihailov (Станислав Михаилов), http://www.optim.su/.