Most current approaches to concurrency control in database systems rely on locking of data objects as a control mechanism. In this paper, two families of nonlocking concurrency controls are presented. The methods used are “optimistic ” in the sense that they rely mainly on transaction backup as a control mechanism, “hoping ” that conflicts between transactions will not occur. Applications for which these methods should be more efficient than locking are discussed.

This is the nineteenth edition of a (usually) quarterly column that covers new developments in the theory of NP-completeness. The presentation is modeled on that used by M. R. Garey and myself in our book ‘‘Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness,’ ’ W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, 1979 (hereinafter referred to as ‘‘[G&J]’’; previous columns will be referred to by their dates). A background equivalent to that provided by [G&J] is assumed, and, when appropriate, cross-references will be given to that book and the list of problems (NP-complete and harder) presented there. Readers who have results they would like mentioned (NP-hardness, PSPACE-hardness, polynomial-time-solvability, etc.) or open problems they would like publicized, should

A sequence of interleaved user transactions in a database system may not be 8zis, i.e., equivalent to some sequential execution of the individual transactions. Using a simle transaction model we show that recognizing the transaction histories which are serializable is an NP- complete problem. We therefore introduce several efficiently recognizable j9gsses of the class of serializable histories most of thee S.b- classes correspond to serializability principles existing in the literature and used in practice. We also propose two new principles which subsume all previously known ones. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a class of histories to be the output of an efficient history scheduler these conditions imply that there can be no efficient scheduler that outputs all of serializable histories,.and also that all subclasses of serializable histories studied above have an efficient scheduler. Finally, we show how our results can be extended to far more general transaction models,'to transactions with partly interpreted functions, and to distributed database syst%.

Synchronization of accesses to shared data and recovering the state of such data in the case of failures are really two aspects of the same problem--implementing atomic actions on a related set of data items. In this paper a mechanism that solves both problems simultaneously in a way that is compatible with requirements of decentralized systems is described. In particular, the correct construction and execution of a new atomic action can be accomplished without knowledge of all other atomic actions in the system that might execute concurrently. Further, the mechanisms degrade gracefully if parts of the system fail: only those atomic actions that require resources in failed parts of the system are prevented from executing, and there is no single coordinator that can fail and bring down the whole system.

In his paper, we introduce Quasi Serializability, a correctness criterion for con-currency control in heterogeneous distributed database environments. A global history is quasi serializable if it is (conflict) equivalent to a quasi serial history in which global transactions are submitted serially. Quasi serializability theory is an extension of serializability. We study the relationships between serializability and quasi serializability and the reasons quasi serializability can be used as a correctness criterion in heterogeneous distributed dalabase environments. M7e also use quasi serializability theory to give a correctness proof for an altruistic locking algorithm. Key words and phrases: heterogeneous/rederated database systems, concur-rency control in heterogeneous distributed database systems, quasi serializabil-ily.

A protocol for transaction processing during partition failures is presented which guarantees mutual consistency between copies of data-items after repair is completed. The protocol is “optimistic ” in that transactions are processed without restrictions during failure; conflicts are then detected at repair time using a precedence graph, and are resolved by backing out transactions according to some backout strategy. The resulting database state then corresponds to a serial execution of some subset of transactions run during the failure. Results from simulation and probabilistic modeling show that the optimistic protocol is a reasonable alternative in many cases. Conditions under which the protocol performs well are noted, and suggestions are made as to how performance can be improved. In particular, a backout strategy is presented which takes into account individual transaction costs and attempts to minimize total backout cost. Although the problem of choosing transactions to minimize total backout cost is, in general, NP-complete, the backout strategy is efficient and produces very good results.

this paper, we propose a general framework for implementing undo in collaborative systems. The framework allows users to individually reverse their own changes, taking into account the possibility of conflicts between different users' operations that may prevent an undo. The proposed framework has been incorporated into DistEdit, a toolkit for building group text-editors. Based on our experience with DistEdit's undo facilities, we discuss several issues that need to be taken into account in using the framework, in order to ensure that a reasonable undo behavior is provided to users. We show that the framework is also applicable to single-user systems, since the operations to undo can be selected not just on the basis of who performed them, but by any appropriate criterion, such as the document region in which the operations occurred or the time interval in which the operations were carried out. Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.2.2 [Software Engineering]: Tools and Techniques -- User Interfaces; H.1.2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems -- Human Factors; H.2.2 [Database

This paper presents the concurrency control strategy of SDD-1. SDD-1, a System for Distributed Databases, is a prototype distributed database system being developed by Computer Corporation of America. In SDD-1, portions of data distributed throughout a network may be replicated at multiple sites. The SDD-1 concurrency control guarantees database consistency in the face of such distribution and replication. This paper is one of a series of companion papers on SDD-1[4,10,12,21].

The ability to undo operations is a standard feature in most single-user interactive applications. However, most current collaborative applications that allow several users to work simultaneously on a shared document lack undo capabilities; those which provide undo generally provide only a global undo, in which the last change made by anyone to a document is undone, rather than allowing users to individually reverse their own changes. In this paper, we propose a general framework for undoing actions in collaborative systems. The framework takes into account the possibility of conflicts between different users' actions that may prevent a normal undo. The framework also allows selection of actions to undo based on who performed them, where they occurred, or any other appropriate criterion. The proposed framework have been incorporated in DistEdit, a toolkit for building text group editors. Based on our experience, we discuss methods for maintaining the undo information in a groupware env...

MO>! database systems ensure the consistency of the data by means of a concurrency control scheme that USE a polynomial time on-line scheduler. Papadimirrlou and Kanellakis have shown that for the most general multiversion database model no such effective scheduler exists. In this paper we focus our attention 0 ~ an efficient multiversion database model and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for ensuring serializability and serializability without the use of transaction rollback for this model. It is shown that both t,hese classes yield additional concurrency through t.he use of mu!tiple versions. This characterization is used to derive the first general multiversion protocol which does not use transaction rollback as a means for ensuring serializability.