A Unifying Approach to Hierarchical Transaction Management in Multidatabase Systems

A multidatabase transaction management system is a two-level hierarchical approach to the global integration of local autonomous transaction management systems. This paper offers an approach to the correct execution of both global and local transactions without violation of local autonomy. Local extensibility is proposed as a unifying principle in the combination of global and local transaction management. Global consistency is maintained through a global concurrency control correctness criterion which is less restrictive than global serializability. The preservation of the necessary balance between the demands of global transaction management and local autonomy provide us with an enhanced theoretical understanding of the limitations of global transaction management in multidatabase systems.