Multibase: integrating heterogeneous distributed database systems

ABSTRACT

Multibase is a software system for integrating access to preexisting, heterogeneous, distributed databases. The system suppresses differences of DBMS, language, and data models among the databases and provides users with a unified global schema and a single high-level query language. Autonomy for updating is retained with the local databases. The architecture of Multibase does not require any changes to local databases or DBMSs. There are three principal research goals of the project. The first goal is to develop appropriate language constructs for accessing and integrating heterogeneous databases. The second goal is to discover effective global and local optimization techniques. The final goal is to design methods for handling incompatible data representations and inconsistent data. Currently the project is in the first year of a planned three year effort. This paper describes the basic architecture of Multibase and identifies some of the avenues to be taken in subsequent research.

REFERENCES

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