Database systems: Implementation of a distributed database management system to support logical subnetworks

This paper describes the design and implementation of a special-purpose distributed data management system. The design and implementation were parts of a study to evaluate the database management needs of software-defined logical subnetworks. The paper describes the authorization model used to define logical subnetworks and the related subnetwork management transactions. The definition of the subnetworks and their service capabilities are stored in a distributed database. The distributed database architecture and the implemented software architecture are described. The requirement to design and implement within a specific time frame has kept the design simple, but the nature of the application dictated that we consider many aspects of the more general distributed data-management problem. The database management issues that are addressed in this paper, in the context of transaction processing, include multicopy updates, concurrency control, and crash recovery. A version of the primary node concept for multicopy updates was adopted. Data inconsistencies, created by premature termination of transaction processing (e.g., system crash), are detected and removed by the software.