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A Unifying Semantics for Active Databases Using Non-Markovian Theories of Actions

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Database Programming Languages (DBPL 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2921))

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Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, database management systems (DBMSs) have been enhanced by the addition of rule-based programming to obtain active DBMSs. One of the greatest challenges in this area is to formally account for all the aspects of active behavior using a uniform formalism. In this paper, we formalize active relational databases within the framework of the situation calculus by uniformly accounting for them using theories embodying non-Markovian control in the situation calculus. We call these theories active relational theories and use them to capture the dynamics of active databases. Transaction processing and rule execution is modelled as a theorem proving task using active relational theories as background axioms. We show that major components of an ADBMS may be given a clear semantics using active relational theories.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa,  

    Iluju Kiringa

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto,  

    Ray Reiter

Authors
  1. Iluju Kiringa
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  2. Ray Reiter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Institut für Informatik, Georges-Köhler-Allee, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Gebäude 51, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Georg Lausen

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington,  

    Dan Suciu

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Kiringa, I., Reiter, R. (2004). A Unifying Semantics for Active Databases Using Non-Markovian Theories of Actions. In: Lausen, G., Suciu, D. (eds) Database Programming Languages. DBPL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2921. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24607-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24607-7_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20896-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-24607-7

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