INFORMATION-BASED MODEL FOR FAILURE-HANDLING IN DISTRIBUTED DATABASE SYSTEMS.

Abstract

The authors consider the failure atomicity problem of distributed transactions in conjunction with the maximization of database availability. They propose a new information-based model for the distributed transaction execution, which explicitly expresses the information at each stage during a protocol. In addition to rederiving certain existing results. They prove a fundamental relation among the site failures and the network partitioning. The authors also propose a realistic model for site failures under which it is shown that the costs of commit and termination protocols can be greatly reduced. Finally, they explore the possible recovery strategies for a failed site and show how these are improved under their site failure model.