Airline Reservation System

1. A distribution Airline Reservation System stores the following information

(The following description may lead to un-normalized relations normalize them whenever
required).

The flight details

It includes the originating flight terminal and destination terminal, along with stops in between, number of seats
booked/available seats between two destination etc.

Customer Description
It includes customer code, name, address and phone number. This information may be used for keeping the
records of customer for any emergency or for any other kind of information

Reservation Description
It includes customer code number, flight number, date of booking, date of traveling, (You may assume any other
fild/relation, if needed).

Let us assume that this distributed system is to be used following application:

a. A request for booking/cancellation of flight from any source to any destination

, giving connected flights in case no direct flight between the specified Source-Destination pair exist.

b. Calculation of high fliers (most frequent fliers) and calculating appropriate

reward points for these fliers.

Assuming both the transactions are single transactions. Design a distributed

database that is geographically dispersed at four cites Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,
Kolkatta) Make suitable assumptions. Give justifications to your design.

Your design include:

i) The global schema, fragmentation schema, allocation schema.

ii) SQL commands for above queries/applications

iii) How the response for application 1 and 2 will be generated. Assuming these
are global queries. Explain how various fragments will be combined to do so.

iv) Implement the database at least using a centralized database management

system (make suitable adjustment in your design)

Answer:

DISTRIBUTED DATABASE :
Distributed database implies that a single application should be able to operate
transparently on data that is spread across a variety of different databases and
connected by a communication network.

“A distributed database system consists of a collection of ‘sites’, connected together

via some kind of communications network, in which

1. Each site is a database system site in its own right, but

2. The sites have agreed to work together so that a user at any site can access data anywhere in the network
exactly as if the data were all stored at the user’s own site.

It follows that the so-called “distributed database” is really a kind of virtual objects, whose component parts are
physically stored in a number of distinct “real” database at a number distinct sites.

A distributed database system consists of a collection of sites, each of which may participate in the execution of
transactions which access data at one site, or several sites. The main difference between centralized and
distributed database systems is that, in the former, the data resided in one single location, while in the latter, the
data resided in several locations.

Each site is able to process local transactions, those transactions that access data only that single site. A site may
participate in the executions of global transactions, those transactions that access data in several sites. The
execution of global transactions require communication among the sites.

Each site is a database system site in its own right. In other words, each site has its own local “real” databases, its
own local users, its own local DBMS and transaction management software and its own local data communications
manager. The distributed database system can thus be regarded as a kind of partnership among individual local
DBMS at the individual sites.

In the given context there are four sites,i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and these sites are
geographically dispersed. Each site has its own computer with a database consisting of all the customers and flight
details maintained at that site. The database system at the various sites are based on the relational model. Each
branch maintains the relation reservation where

Reservation_scheme=(site_code,fl_no,cust_code,travel_date)

Site containing information about the four sites maintains the relation (Cite_scheme), where

Cite_scheme=(Cite_code,Cite_name)

A local transaction is a transaction that accesses information in the one single site, at which the transaction was
initiated. A global transaction, on the other hand is one which either access accounts in a site different from the
one at which the transaction was initiated, or access several different sites.

Then the advantages are surely obvious: The distributed arrangement combines efficiency of processing (the data
is stored close to the point where it is most frequently used) with increased accessibility (it is possible to access a
Delhi information from Kolkata and vice versa, via the communication network), reliability and availability and
speedup of query processing.

Allowing the structure of the database to mirror the structure of the enterprise is probably the number one
advantage of distributed systems. There are some disadvantages too, of which the biggest is the fact that
distributed systems are complex, software development cost, greater potential for bugs and increase processing
overhead.

As per commercial implementations, most of today’s relational products offer some kind of distributed database
support. Some of the best known include,

(a) INRESS/STAR , from The ASK Group Inc.’s Ingress Division;

(b) the distributed database option of ORCALE8 or later from Oracle Corporation and

(c) the distributed data facility of DB2 from IBM.

It is worth pointing out that all of the systems listed above, both prototypes and products, are relational.

OBJECTIVES :

1. Local autonomy

2. No reliance on a central site

3. Continuous operation

4. Location independence

5. Fragmentation independence

6. Replication independence

7. Distributed query processing

8. Distributed transactions management

9. Hardware independence

10. Operating system independence

11. Network independence

12. DBMS independence

These above twelve objectives are not all independent of one another, nor are they necessarily exhaustive, nor
are they all equally significant. However, they are useful as a basis for understanding distributed technology and
as a framework for characterizing the functionality of specific distributed systems

Airline Reservation System

CLIENT/SERVER SYSTEM :

A client/server system is a distributed systems in which,

(a) some sites are client sites and others are serer sites

(b) all data resides at the server sites

(c) all applications execute at the client sites

The term ‘client/server’ refers primarily to an architecture, or logical division of responsibilities , the client is

the application (also known as the frontend), and the server is the DBMS (also known as the backend).
A client/server system can be thought of as a distributed system in which all requests originate at one site and all

processing is performed at another. In practice the client site might well have its own local databases, but those

databases will not play a direct part in the client/server arrangement as such.

Client/Server provides a low-priced robust solution to user requirements. This approach permits downsizing

production subsystem while allowing the clients and servers the necessary tools and facilitate to control, manage

and tune the environment in which they operate.

Most client/server solution are also very attentive in matters of security. Access to any resources can be defines

to the file level, with such access being controlled through identification and authorization. Logically defined

closed use groups can be setup to enable the enhancing of security measures by network administrations.

It allows the database management including security, performance, backup, server enforced integrity to be part

of the database machine avoiding the requirement to write large number of redundant piece of code dealing with

database field validation and referential integrity.

The successful organizations have to be marked drives and competitive in the times to come, and they will use

Client/Server computing as the enabling technology to add values to their business. Powerful workstations will be

available to all end users to be used as clients to access the information on the servers which are distributed

globally. The networks of the future will support much higher bandwidth by using technologies like corporate

networks will cut across the boundaries of cities or even countries and they will be connected to major networks

around the worlds.

E-R DIAGRAM :
E-R Diagram constitute a technique for representing the logical structure of a database in a pictorial manner. This

analysis is then used to organize data as a relation, normalising relation and finally obtaining a relation database.

Entities : Which specify distinct real-world items in an application.

Properties (or): Which specify properties of an entity and relationships.

Attributes

Relationships : Which connect entities and represent meaningful dependencies between them.
NORMALIZATION :
The basic objective of normalization is to be reduce redundancy which means that information is to be stored

only once. Storing information several times leads to wastage of storage space and increase in the total size of

the data stored.

If a Database is not properly designed it can gives rise to modification anomalies. Modification anomalies arise

when data is added to, changed or deleted from a database table. Similarly, in traditional databases as well as

improperly designed relational databases, data redundancy can be a problem. These can be eliminated by

normalizing a database.
Normalization is the process of breaking down a table into smaller tables. So that each table deals with a single

theme. There are three different kinds of modifications of anomalies and formulated the first, second and third

normal forms (3NF) is considered sufficient for most practical purposes. It should be considered only after a

through analysis and complete understanding of its implications.

FIRST NORMAL FORM (1NF) :

This form also called as a “flat file”. Each column should contain data in respect of a single attributes and no two

rows may be identical.

To bring a table to First Normal Form, repeating groups of fields should be identified and moved to another table.

Cont...
Airline Reservation System

SECOND NORMAL FORM (2NF) :

A relation is said to be in 2NF if it is 1NF and non-key attributes are functionality dependent on the key attributes.

A ‘Functional Dependency’ is a relationship among attributes. One attribute is said to be functionally dependent

on another if the value of the first attribute depends on the value of the second attribute.

In the given description flight number and halt code is the composite key

Splitting of relation given in table 1 into 2NF relations

FLIGHT DETAILS :

AR_FLIGHT_MST
FL_NO VARCHAR2(7) PRIMARY KEY
FL_NAME VARCHAR2(25) NOT NULL
ORG_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL
DES_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL
CAPACITY NUMBER(3) NOT NULL

AR_FLIGHT_DET
 PRIMARY KEY (REFERENCE
FL_NO VARCHAR2(7)
AR_FLIGHT_MST.FL_NO)
HALT_CD NUMBER(3) PRIMARY KEY
DIST_FRM_ORG NUMBER(3) -
NO_QUOTA NUMBER(3) -
NO_BOOKED NUMBER(3) -
JOUR_DATE - NOT NULL

THIRD NORMAL FORM (3NF) :

A Third Normal Form normalization will be needed where all attributes in a relation tuple are not functionally

dependent only on the key attribute. A transitive dependency is one in which one in which one attribute depends

on second which is turned depends on a third and so on.

FLIGHT DETAILS :
AR_FLIGHT_MST
FL_NO VARCHAR2(7) PRIMARY KEY
FL_NAME VARCHAR2(25) NOT NULL
ORG_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL
DES_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL
CAPACITY NUMBER(3) NOT NULL

AR_FLIGHT_DET
 PRIMARY KEY (REFERENCE
FL_NO VARCHAR2(7)
AR_FLIGHT_MST.FL_NO)
HALT_CD NUMBER(3) PRIMARY KEY
DIST_FRM_ORG NUMBER(3) -
NO_QUOTA NUMBER(3) -
NO_BOOKED NUMBER(3 -
JOUR_DATE - NOT NULL

AR_HALT_MST
HALT_CD NUMBER(3) PRIMARY KEY
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL
Airline Reservation System

DATA DICTIONARY :

FLIGHT DETAILS :

AR_FLIGHT_MST

FL_NO VARCHAR2(7) PRIMARY KEY

FL_NAME VARCHAR2(25) NOT NULL

ORG_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL

DES_CD NUMBER(3) NOT NULL

CAPACITY NUMBER(3) NOT NULL

AR_FLIGHT_DET
PRIMARY KEY (REFERENCE
FL_NO VARCHAR2(7)
AR_FLIGHT_MST.FL_NO)
HALT_CD NUMBER(3) PRIMARY KEY

DIST_FRM_ORG NUMBER(3)

NO_QUOTA NUMBER(3)

NO_BOOKED NUMBER(3)

JOUR_DATE NOT NULL

AR_HALT_MST
HALT_CD NUMBER(3) PRIMARY KEY

DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL

CUSTOMER DETAILS :

AR_CUST_MST
CITE_CODE VARCHAR2(3)

CUST_CODE VARCHAR2(6) PRIMARY KEY

NAME VARCHAR2(25) -

ADDRESS1 VARCHAR2(30) -

ADDRESS2 VARCHAR2(30) -