Multidatabase Systems

Recommended for
Graduate students and others, e.g. from industry, interested in updating their knowledge in this area.

The course was last given
Spring 1998

Goals
Classical DBMSs are monolithic in that they are regarded as central systems, even though data managed by a distributed DBMSs can be transparently distributed over many sites. The monolithic approach is insufficient with the advent of widely available computer networks, such as the Internet. In this new environment the problem is often how to combine data from several heterogeneous databases, rather than how to manage a single database. The area of multi-databases deals with this issue. Another important problem that appears in conjunction with databases in large distributed computer networks is Scalable Distributed Data Structures (SDDSs) that gracefully utilize more nodes in the network when data grows, without causing hot spots.

Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of the fundamentals of database systems. The knowledge can be obtained by, e.g. either of the courses:

Ecsel's foundational course, Fundamentals of Modern Database Systems. Undergraduate database courses in computer science. There is related advanced ECSEL course on Advances in Database Technology which brings the student up-to-date on the state-of-the-art in database research and advanced systems

Organization
Lectures, seminars and practical exercises

Contents
Topics covered by the course are:

Architectures for multidatabase systems, Autonomy and semantic heterogeneity, Relational multidatabase management, MSQL language, Legacy databases, Multidatabase and distributed transaction management, OO interoperability, Interaction to interoperability standards:ODBC, CORBA, DCE, etc., Scalable and distributed implementation techniques

Literature
Hurson, Bright, Pakzad: Multi-database Systems - an advanced solution for global information sharing, IEEE Press, 1993. Bukhres and Elmagarmid: Object-Oriented Multi-Database Systems - solution for Advanced Applications, Prentice Hall, 1996.

Teachers
Witold Litwin.

Examiner
Nahid Shahmehri.

Schedule
Spring 2000.

Examination
Written exam and practical exercises.

Credit
3 credits

Comments
ECSEL Graduate Course.

Page responsible: Director of Graduate Studies