This thesis has six chapters. Chapter 1 motivates the thesis by describing the characteristics of real-time database systems and the problems of scheduling transactions with deadlines. We also present a short survey of related work and discuss how this thesis has contributed to the state of the art.
In Chapter 2 we develop a new family of algorithms for scheduling real-time transactions. Our algorithms have four components: a policy to manage overloads, a policy for scheduling the CPU, a policy for scheduling access to data, i.e., concurrency control and a policy for scheduling I/O requests on a disk device.
In Chapter 3, our scheduling algorithms are evaluated via simulation. Our chief result is that real-time scheduling algorithms can perform significantly better than a conventional non real-time algorithm. In particular, the Least Slack (static evaluation) policy for scheduling the CPU, combined with the Wait Promote policy for concurrency control, produces the best overall performance.
In Chapter 4 we develop a new set of algorithms for scheduling disk I/O requests with deadlines. Our model assumes the existence of a real-time database system which assigns deadlines to individual read and write requests. We also propose new techniques for handling requests without deadlines and requests with deadlines simultaneously. This approach greatly improves the performance of the algorithms and their ability to minimize missed deadlines.
In Chapter 5 we evaluate the I/O scheduling algorithms using detailed simulation. Our chief result is that real-time disk scheduling algorithms can perform better than conventional algorithms. In particular, our algorithm FD-SCAN was found to be very effective across a wide range of experiments.
Finally, in Chapter 6 we summarize our conclusions and discuss how this work has contributed to the state of the art. Also, we briefly explore some interesting new directions for continuing this research.

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Scheduling Real-time Transactions: a Performance Evaluation

Scheduling real-time transactions: a performance evaluation

Data in real-time databases has to be logically consistent as well as temporally consistent. The latter arises from the need to preserve the temporal validity of data items that reflect the state of the environment that is being controlled by the system. Some of the timing constraints on the transactions that process real-time data come from this need. These constraints, in turn, necessitate time-cognizant transaction processing so that transactions can be processed to meet their deadlines.

Real-time databases

A temporal database contains time-varying data. In a real-time database transactions have deadlines or timing constraints. In this paper we review the substantial research in these two previously separate areas. First we characterize the time domain; then we investigate temporal and real-time data models. We evaluate temporal and real-time query languages along several dimensions. We examine temporal and real-time DBMS implementation. Finally, we summarize major research accomplishments to date and list several unanswered research questions. >

Temporal and real-time databases: a survey

A major challenge addressed by conventional database systems has been to efficiently implement the transaction model, which provides the properties of atomicity, serializability, and permanence. Real-time applications have added a complex new dimension to this challenge by placing deadlines on the response time of the database system. In this paper, we examine the problem of real-time data access scheduling, that is, the problem of scheduling the data accesses of real-time transactions in order to meet their deadlines. In particular, we focus on firm deadline real-time database applications, where transactions that miss their deadlines are discarded and the objective of the real-time database system is to minimize the number of missed deadlines. Within this framework, we use a detailed simulation model to compare the performance of several real-time locking protocols and optimistic concurrency control algorithms under a variety of real-time transaction workloads. The results of our study show that in moving from the conventional database system domain to the real-time domain, there are new performance-related forces that come into effect. Our experiments demonstrate that these factors can cause performance recommendations that were valid in a conventional database setting to be significantly altered in the corresponding real-time setting.

/pdf/data-access-scheduling-in-firm-real-time-database-systems-1yflm109pl.pdf

Data access scheduling in firm real-time database systems

A new concurrency control algorithm for real-time database systems is proposed, by which real-time scheduling and concurrency control can be integrated. The algorithm is founded on a priority-based locking mechanism to support time-critical scheduling by adjusting the serialization order dynamically in favor of high priority transactions. Furthermore, it does not assume any knowledge about the data requirements or execution time of each transaction, making the algorithm very practical. >

Y. Lin

Papers

Concurrency control in real-time databases by dynamic adjustment of serialization order