{"id":12837,"date":"2022-03-02T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T23:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/?p=12837"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:38:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T18:38:43","slug":"patent-asserts-couchbases-technical-leadership-on-nosql-query-optimization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/patent-asserts-couchbases-technical-leadership-on-nosql-query-optimization\/","title":{"rendered":"Patent asserts Couchbase’s technical leadership on NoSQL query optimization"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 14, 2021, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted Couchbase its <\/span>first patent<\/span><\/a>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Couchbase engineering team has been at the forefront of evolving the performance of document databases for the past decade. Our engineers’ commitment to excellence is the reason why some of the largest enterprises in the world now trust Couchbase for their most mission-critical applications. We have recently patented a novel approach to cost-based optimization (CBO) for document-oriented database queries as part of this commitment. Couchbase engineering has brought the power of cost-based optimization to NoSQL for the first time, and this patent grant recognizes the novel innovation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We congratulate <\/span>Bingjie Miao<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Keshav Murthy<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Marco Greco<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Prathibha Bisarahalli<\/span><\/a> for their impressive work!<\/span><\/p>\n

This post will explain cost-based optimization (CBO), why it matters, and why CBO for queries to document databases is unique to Couchbase.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Cost-based Optimization?<\/span><\/h4>\n

Cost-based optimization (or CBO) is a process for selecting the most efficient way to execute a database query by considering the cost of memory, CPU, network transport, and disk usage. CBO compares the cost of alternative query routes and then selects the query-execution plan with the least cost.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Keshav Murthy, our VP of Engineering and one of the patent authors, uses the following map analogy to explain what is CBO:<\/span><\/p>\n

“One way to grasp CBO is to consider an airplane flight plan<\/span><\/a>: a plane can take any number of paths to go from San Francisco to S\u00e3o Paulo, but there are only a few optimal paths when you consider fuel costs, wind resistance, air traffic, etc. Similarly, a database query needs a query plan. There are many ways to run the query, but only a few optimal plans.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

One way to select a query path is to use a Rule-based Optimization (RBO), which makes query path decisions based on rules (e.g., always prefer indexes with the most keys). However, RBO can get very messy and inefficient very quickly. And it rarely yields the most optimal query path. In the NoSQL database world, most databases still leverage rule-based optimization.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cost-based optimization takes a user-submitted query, selects from millions of query plans, and chooses the most performant and resource-efficient plan for query execution based on statistics.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Why does Cost-based Optimization matter?<\/span><\/h4>\n

The implications of CBO are that queries leverage less memory, less disk, less IO, fewer partitions, less overflow, which leads to lower latency and lower cost for users. This is particularly meaningful for databases that handle a large number of transactions\u2013\u2013even minor performance improvements can have a significant impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keshav Murthy went on to explain why CBO matters, again using a map analogy:<\/span><\/p>\n

“When it matters \u2014 like getting to your kid\u2019s recital or a ballgame on time \u2014 would you use a static direction map that doesn\u2019t account for the traffic?\u00a0 Google Maps\u2019 route optimizer will optimize for time. The optimizers develop a plan to execute the query with the least resources: CPU, memory. Knowing this, why would you accept a static rule (or <\/span>query shape<\/span><\/a>!) based optimization on your business-critical database workload?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The database query optimizer makes decisions.\u00a0 These decisions have major implications on query performance, system throughput, and your ability to meet the SLAs. Databases with a better optimizer will make it easier to develop, manage and meet the SLAs.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

How CBO for document databases is unique to Couchbase<\/h4>\n

Cost-based optimization (CBO) for SQL has existed for more than <\/span>40 years<\/span><\/a> and has been critical to the success of RDBMS and developer productivity. However, CBO was not available for document database queries until Couchbase implemented CBO for N1QL with the Couchbase Server 6.5 release in 2019.\u00a0 Since then, our customers have enjoyed the performance benefits of CBO for their queries\u2013\u2013which is particularly important for many of our customers that rely on the high performance of Couchbase to power their most mission-critical applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

The patent grant represents a technical commitment from Couchbase to deliver the best elements of SQL for our NoSQL Database platform. And with the recent patent grant, Couchbase is the only document database provider able to intelligently execute cost-based optimization for NoSQL database queries\u2013\u2013which has enormous implications on performance and cost. Before deciding on a NoSQL database, ask your vendor:\u00a0 <\/span>Do you have a cost-based optimizer?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Congratulations again to our engineering team for their continued hard work to evolve the standard of excellence for document databases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn More about Cost-Based Optimization for Couchbase!<\/span><\/h4>\n

Watch a <\/span>short video<\/span><\/a> or read the <\/span>documentation<\/span><\/a> for an overview of Cost-Based Optimization in N1QL.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a deep dive into CBO for N1QL, I recommend reading the following blog posts by Keshav Murthy, our VP of Engineering:<\/span><\/p>\n