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Three Schema Architecture: 1. Physical Layer

The Three Schema Architecture divides a database into three levels: 1. The physical level defines the actual storage structure and physical representation of data. 2. The conceptual level represents the organization of data as relations and records and hides the physical structure. 3. The external level provides different views of the data to users and handles access control.

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732 views3 pages

Three Schema Architecture: 1. Physical Layer

The Three Schema Architecture divides a database into three levels: 1. The physical level defines the actual storage structure and physical representation of data. 2. The conceptual level represents the organization of data as relations and records and hides the physical structure. 3. The external level provides different views of the data to users and handles access control.

Uploaded by

partha sarathi guggiri
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Three Schema Architecture

The Three Schema Architecture tells how the data is represented in a database. The Three
Schema Architecture is also known as three-level architecture or ANSI/ SPARC architecture.
This architecture is used to divide the database into 3 levels to separate the user and the
physical database. This helps in providing abstraction to the users who may not require all
the details.It basically hides the physical storage details from the user.

Figure: Three Schema Architecture


1. Physical Layer
The Physical Layer contains the internal Schema which defines the physical
storage structure of the database. The internal schema is the low-level
representation of the database. The internal Schema tells us what data is
stored in the database and how?.
Major points related to physical layer are:
a. How data is stored in a database.
b. It shows the actual representation of the database.

2. Conceptual Layer
Conceptual Layer contains the conceptual Schema. It is designed to represent
the organization of data as relations and records. If a change is to be made in
the conceptual schema it should not affect the existing external schema.
Major points related to the Conceptual Layer are:
a. It describes the structure of Schema for the community or set users.
b. It hides the Physical Structure/Schema.
c. Representational Model is an example of Conceptual Schema.

3. External Layer
External layer is the highest level in the three level architecture and is also
known as the view level. It is used as a view for a number of users due to this
we can have multiple external levels. It only shows the relevant database
content to the users in the form of views and hides the rest of the data. Same
database is used to provide different sets of data to different sets of users.
Major points related to the External Layer are:
a. To provide access control.
b. It handles the way the users visualize the database according to their
need.

Data Independence

Data Independence in DBMS is the property to modify the definition of a schema in a


level without affecting the definition of schema in other levels.
There are two levels of Data Independence:
1. Physical Data Independence
2. Logical Data Independence

Physical Data Independence

Physical Data Independence is the property to modify the Physical Schema without
changing the Logical and Conceptual level.
● Physical Data Independence can be used to change the storage device from
one to another without affecting the Logical level.
● This allows us to provide a logical description without the need to specify any
physical structures of the database.
● It also separates the conceptual level from the other internal levels.

Logical Data Independence

Logical Data Independence is the property to modify the Conceptual Schema


without changing the external level.
● In Logical Data Independence ,any change done at the logical level the
external view of the data remains unchanged.
● It is used to change the definition of data.

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