Combining Theory and Practice in Integrity Control: A Declarative Approach to the Specification of a Transaction Modification Subsystem

Integrity control is generally considered an important topic in the field of database system research. In the database literature, many proposals for integrity control mechanisms canbe found. A large group of proposals has a formal character, and does not cover complete algorithms that can be used in a real-world database system with multi-update transactions. Another group of proposals is system-oriented and often lacks a complete formalbackground on transactions and integrity control; algorithms are usually described in system terms. This paper combines the essentials of both groups: it presents a declarative specification of a transaction-based integrity control technique that has a solidformal basis and can easily be applied in real-world database systems. The technique, called transaction modification, features simple semantics, full transaction support, and extensibility to parallel data processing. These claims are supported by a prototype implementation of a transaction modification subsystem in the high-performance PRISMA/DB database system. This paper shows that it is well possible for an integrity control technique tocombine a formal approach with complete functionality and high performance

Inconsistency-tolerant business rules in distributed information systems

The final publication is available at Springer via http://10.1007/978-3-642-41033-8_41Business rules enhance the integrity of information systems. However, their maintenance does not scale up easily to distributed systems with concurrent transactions. To a large extent, that is due to two problematic exigencies: the postulates of total and isolated business rule satisfaction. For overcoming these problems, we outline a measure-based inconsistency-tolerant approach to business rules maintenance.Supported by ERDF/FEDER and MEC grants TIN2009-14460-C03, TIN2010-17139, TIN2012-37719-C03-01.Decker, H.; Muñoz Escoí, FD. (2013). Inconsistency-tolerant business rules in distributed information systems. En On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2013 Workshops. Springer Verlag (Germany). 8186:322-331. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41033-8_41S3223318186Abiteboul, S., Hull, R., Vianu, V.: Foundations of Databases. 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Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Decker, H.: New measures for maintaining the quality of databases. In: Murgante, B., Gervasi, O., Misra, S., Nedjah, N., Rocha, A.M.A.C., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O. (eds.) ICCSA 2012, Part IV. LNCS, vol. 7336, pp. 170–185. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)Decker, H.: Controlling the Consistency of the Evolution of Database Systems. In: Proc. 24th ICSSEA, Paris (2012)Decker, H., Martinenghi, D.: Inconsistency-tolerant Integrity Checking. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 23(2), 218–234 (2011)Decker, H., Muñoz-Escoí, F.D.: Revisiting and Improving a Result on Integrity Preservation by Concurrent Transactions. In: Meersman, R., Dillon, T., Herrero, P. (eds.) OTM 2010 Workshops. LNCS, vol. 6428, pp. 297–306. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)Eswaran, K., Gray, J., Lorie, R., Traiger, I.: The Notions of Consistency and Predicate Locks in a Database System. CACM 19(11), 624–633 (1976)Gilbert, S., Lynch, N.: Brewer’s Conjecture and the feasibility of Consistent, Available, Partition-tolerant Web Services. ACM SIGACT News 33(2), 51–59 (2002)Ibrahim, H.: Checking Integrity Constraints - How it Differs in Centralized, Distributed and Parallel Databases. In: Proc. 17th DEXA Workshops, pp. 563–568. IEEE (2006)Lynch, N., Blaustein, B., Siegel, M.: Correctness Conditions for Highly Available Replicated Databases. In: Proc. 5th PODC, pp. 11–28. ACM Press (1986)Martinenghi, D., Christiansen, H.: Transaction Management with Integrity Checking. In: Andersen, K.V., Debenham, J., Wagner, R. (eds.) DEXA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3588, pp. 606–615. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)Christiansen, H., Decker, H.: Integrity checking and maintenance in relational and deductive databases and beyond. In: Ma, Z. (ed.) Intelligent Databases: Technologies and Applications, pp. 238–285. Idea Group (2006)Morgan, T.: Business Rules and Information Systems - Aligning IT with Business Goals. Addison-Wesley (2002)Muñoz-Escoí, F.D., Ruiz-Fuertes, M.I., Decker, H., Armendáriz-Íñigo, J.E., de Mendívil, J.R.G.: Extending Middleware Protocols for Database Replication with Integrity Support. In: Meersman, R., Tari, Z. (eds.) OTM 2008, Part I. LNCS, vol. 5331, pp. 607–624. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Nicolas, J.-M.: Logic for improving integrity checking in relational data bases. Acta Informatica 18, 227–253 (1982)Novakovic, I., Deletic, V.: Structuring of Business Rules in Information System Design and Architecture. Facta Universitatis Nis, Ser. Elec. Energ. 22(3), 305–312 (2009)Pipino, L., Lee, Y., Yang, R.: Data Quality Assessment. 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In: Proc. ICPADS, vol. 1, pp. 363–369. IEEE CSP (2005

Extending a multi-set relational algebra to a parallel environment

Parallel database systems will very probably be the future for high-performance data-intensive applications. In the past decade, many parallel database systems have been developed, together with many languages and approaches to specify operations in these systems. A common background is still missing, however. This paper proposes an extended relational algebra for this purpose, based on the well-known standard relational algebra. The extended algebra provides both complete database manipulation language features, and data distribution and process allocation primitives to describe parallelism. It is defined in terms of multi-sets of tuples to allow handling of duplicates and to obtain a close connection to the world of high-performance data processing. Due to its algebraic nature, the language is well suited for optimization and parallelization through expression rewriting. The proposed language can be used as a database manipulation language on its own, as has been done in the PRISMA parallel database project, or as a formal basis for other languages, like SQL

Protocols for Integrity Constraint Checking in Federated Databases

A federated database is comprised of multiple interconnected database systems that primarily operate independently but cooperate to a certain extent. Global integrity constraints can be very useful in federated databases, but the lack of global queries, global transaction mechanisms, and global concurrency control renders traditional constraint management techniques inapplicable. This paper presents a threefold contribution to integrity constraint checking in federated databases: (1) The problem of constraint checking in a federated database environment is clearly formulated. (2) A family of protocols for constraint checking is presented. (3) The differences across protocols in the family are analyzed with respect to system requirements, properties guaranteed by the protocols, and processing and communication costs. Thus, our work yields a suite of options from which a protocol can be chosen to suit the system capabilities and integrity requirements of a particular federated database environment

Beam Loss Monitors at LHC

One of the main functions of the LHC beam loss measurement system is the protection of equipment against damage caused by impacting particles creating secondary showers and their energy dissipation in the matter. Reliability requirements are scaled according to the acceptable consequences and the frequency of particle impact events on equipment. Increasing reliability often leads to more complex systems. The downside of complexity is a reduction of availability; therefore, an optimum has to be found for these conflicting requirements. A detailed review of selected concepts and solutions for the LHC system will be given to show approaches used in various parts of the system from the sensors, signal processing, and software implementations to the requirements for operation and documentation.Comment: 16 pages, contribution to the 2014 Joint International Accelerator School: Beam Loss and Accelerator Protection, Newport Beach, CA, USA , 5-14 Nov 201

Integrity Constraint Checking in Federated Databases

A federated database is comprised of multiple interconnected databases that cooperate in an autonomous fashion. Global integrity constraints are very useful in federated databases, but the lack of global queries, global transaction mechanisms, and global concurrency control renders traditional constraint management techniques inapplicable. The paper presents a threefold contribution to integrity constraint checking in federated databases: (1) the problem of constraint checking in a federated database environment is clearly formulated; (2) a family of cooperative protocols for constraint checking is presented; (3) the differences across protocols in the family are analyzed with respect to system requirements, properties guaranteed, and costs involved. Thus, we provide a suite of options with protocols for various environments with specific system capabilities and integrity requirement