Applying Update Streams in a Soft Real-Time Database System

Abstract

Many papers have examined how to effciently export a materialized view but to our knowledge none have studied how to effciently import one. To import a view, i.e., to install a stream of updates, a real-time database system must process new updates in a timely fashion to keep the database "fresh," but at the same time must process transactions and ensure they meet their time constraints. In this paper, we discuss the various properties of updates and views (including staleness) that affect this tradeoff. We also examine, through simulation, four algorithms for scheduling transactions and installing updates in a soft real-time database. Keywords: soft real-time, temporal databases, materialized views, updates.