Real-time index concurrency control

Abstract

Research on real-time database systems (RTDBS) has been underway for close to a decade now. So far, this research has focused mainly o11 identifying the appropriate choice, with respect to meeting the real-time goals, for the various database system policies such as priority assignment, transaction concurrency control, memory management, etc. (see [16] for a recent survey). However, the design and evaluation of concurrency control algorithms for indexes, which are an integral part of database systems, has received virtually no attention in the real-time environment. In our view, this lacuna is rather surprising since it appears reasonable to expect that indexes would be one of tbe primary mechanisms by which a well-designed RTDBS would try to meet transaction timing constraints. In this situation, using an "offthe- shelf" index concurrency control algorithm that has not been specifically designed for the real-time environment may lead to many transactions missing their deadlines.