An evaluation of network access protocols for distributed real-time database systems

The results of a considerable number of works addressing various features of real-time database systems (RTDBSs) have recently appeared in the literature. An issue that has not received much attention yet is the performance of the communication network configuration in a distributed RTDBS. In this article, we examine the impact of underlying network architecture on the performance of a distributed RTDBS. In particular, we evaluate the real-time performance of distributed transactions in terms of the fraction of satisfied deadlines under various network access strategies. We also critically examine the common assumption of constant network delay for each communication message exchanged in a distributed RTDBS. (C) 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc.