What is Temporal Data Object

Recently, the demand for real-time data services has been increasing (Aslinger & Son, 2005). Many applications such as online stock trading, agile manufacturing, traffic control, target tracking, network management, and so forth, require the support of a distributed real-time database system (DRTDBS). Typically, these applications need predictable response time, and they often have to process various kinds of queries in a timely fashion. A DRTDBS is defined as a distributed database system within which transactions and data have timing characteristics or explicit timing constraints and system correctness that depend not only on the logic results but also on the time at which the logic results are produced. Similar to conventional real-time systems, transactions in DRTDBSs are usually associated with timing constraints. On the other hand, a DRTDBS must maintain databases for useful information, support the manipulation of the databases, and process transactions. Timing constraints of transactions in a DRTDBS are typically specified in the form of deadlines that require a transaction to be completed by a specified time. For soft realtime transactions, failure to meet a deadline can cause the results to lose their value, and for firm or hard real-time transactions, a result produced too late may be useless or harmful. DRTDBSs often process both temporal data that lose validity after their period of validity and persistent data that remain valid regardless of time. In order to meet the timing constraints of transactions and data, DRTDBSs usually adopt main memory database (MMDB) as their ground support. In an MMDB, “working copy” of a database is placed in the main memory, and a “secondary copy” of the database on disks serves as backup. Data I/O can be eliminated during a transaction execution by adopting an MMDB so that a substantial performance improvement can be achieved. We define a DRTDBS integrating MMDB as a distributed real-time main memory database system (DRTMMDBS).