MODELING DYNAMICS OF DATABASES WITH RELATIONAL DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS AND MODELS

Abstract

Behavior of relational databases is studied within the framework of Relational Discrete Event Systems (RDESes) and Models (RDEMs). Three behavior specification methods based on production systems, recurrence equations, and Petri nets are defined and their expressive powers are compared. Production system RDEM is extended to support non-determinism, and various deterministic and non-deterministic production system interpreters are introduced and formally compared in terms of their expressive power. It is shown that the parallel deterministic interpreter has more expressive power than other interpreters including an OPS5-like interpreter. Since it is also parallel, this makes the parallel deterministic interpreter a very attractive interpreter for production systems.