The architecture of an active database management system

Abstract

The HiPAC project is investigating active, time-constrained database management. An active DBMS is one which automatically executes specified actions when specified conditions arise. HiPAC has proposed Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules as a formalism for active database capabilities. We have also developed an execution model that specifies how these rules are processed in the context of database transactions. The additional functionality provided by ECA rules makes new demands on the design of an active DBMS. In this paper we propose an architecture for an active DBMS that supports ECA rules. This architecture provides new forms of interaction, in support of ECA rules, between application programs and the DBMS. This leads to a new paradigm for constructing database applications.