A Multi-Level Architecture for Distributed Object Bases

The work described in this article arises from two needs. First, there is still a need for providing more sophisticated database systems than just relational ones. Secondly, there is a growing need for distributed databases. These needs are adressed by fragmenting schemata of a generic object data model and providing an architecture for its implementation. Key features of the architecture are the use of abstract communicating agents to realize database transactions and queries, the use of an extended remote procedure call to enable remote agents to communicate with one another, and the use of multi-level transactions. Linguistic reflection is used to map database schemata to the level of the agents. Transparency for the users is achieved by using dialogue objects, which are extended views on the database.