SolveDB: Integrating Optimization Problem Solvers Into SQL Databases

Abstract

Many real-world decision problems involve solving optimization problems based on data in an SQL database. Traditionally, solving such problems requires combining a DBMS with optimization software packages for each required class of problems (e.g. linear and constraint programming) -- leading to workflows that are cumbersome, complex, inefficient, and error-prone. In this paper, we present SolveDB - a DBMS for optimization applications. SolveDB supports solvers for different problem classes and offers seamless data management and optimization problem solving in a pure SQL-based setting. This allows for much simpler and more effective solutions of database-based optimization problems. SolveDB is based on the 3-level ANSI/SPARC architecture and allows formulating, solving, and analysing solutions of optimization problems using a single so-called solve query. SolveDB provides (1) an SQL-based syntax for optimization problems, (2) an extensible infrastructure for integrating different solvers, and (3) query optimization techniques to achieve the best execution performance and/or result quality. Extensive experiments with the PostgreSQL-based implementation show that SolveDB is a versatile tool offering much higher developer productivity and order of magnitude better performance for specification-complex and data-intensive problems.