Design of Distributed Databases on Local Computer Systems with a Multiaccess Network

Concurrency control, distribution design, and query processing are some of the important issues in the design of distributed databases. In this paper, we have studied these issues with respect to a relational database on a local computer system connected by a multiaccess broadcast bus. A broadcast bus allows information to be distributed efficiently, and hence simplifies the solutions to some of these issues. A transaction model that integrates the control strategies in concurrency control and query processing is proposed. In concurrency control, the lock, unlock, and update of data are achieved by a few broadcasts. A dynamic strategy is used in query processing, as less data are transferred when compared to a static strategy. The status information needed in dynamic query processing can be conveniently obtained by broadcasting. Lastly, some NP-hard file placement problems are found to be solvable in polynomial time when updates are broadcast.