Extended Transaction Models and the ACTA Framework

Synonyms

Advanced transaction models; Generalization of ACID properties

Definition

Although powerful, the transaction model adopted in traditional database systems is found lacking in functionality and performance when used for applications that involve reactive (endless), open-ended (long-lived) and collaborative (interactive) activities. Hence, various extensions to the traditional model have been proposed, referred to as extended transactions. These models are characterized by the structure of their transactions, the commit and abort dependencies and the visibility rules among transactions. ACTA is a comprehensive transaction framework that facilitate the specification, analysis and synthesis of extended transaction models. The name ACTA, meaning actions in Latin, was chosen given the framework’s appropriateness for expressing the properties of actions used to compose a transactional computation.

Key Points

By means of the notion of transactions, database systems offer reliability...