Consider an information system designed for an online company which provides IT products and services. These include desktops, laptops, networking products, IT books, parts, and technical support etc. Purchases made through the online store can be collected from various outlets. Individual outlets are responsible for maintaining their respective stocks. The products and services are provided by contracted vendors. The information system can be viewed as a virtual shop which is capable to access all products and services in store across all outlets. Buyers are not aware of the existence of different outlets. In the virtual shop, a buyer can assemble a shopping cart and check out by paying in one transaction using Paypal. The buyer will designate a specific outlet for collection or request shipment.
Briefly describe the system you use as the basis for your analysis.
Quantitative analysis
a. Make an estimation of the size of the product catalogue in your chosen product types.
It should include both the number of records and the size of an individual record. State the basis of your estimate.
b. Make an estimation of the number of queries per day, and of the number of purchases. Estimate the size of two years of history of sales including both the number of records and the size of an individual record. State the basis for your estimates.
3. Central database schema
Show a centralised schema to support the operation of the system you have chosen, including in particular: the product catalogue; the outlets and respective stocks; customer records (including PayPal details and purchase history for past 12 months); shopping cart (including whether the order is still in process i.e. active, or has been shipped, i.e. inactive).
4. Distributed database design
a. Identify a number of functional units to support the operation of the system you have chosen, including for example: product catalogue, order processing, stock management etc.
b. Make a fragmentation of the schema designed in 3 above which includes at least one primary/derived horizontal partition, at least one vertical partition and at least one.