Real-time databases: characteristics and issues

Real-time databases transactions have explicit timing constraints, such as deadlines. Conventional database systems may lack features required for supporting real-time transactions. Meeting the requirements of RTDBS will require a balanced and coordinated effort between concurrency control and real-time scheduling. One approach is to combine existing concurrency control protocols with real-time scheduling algorithms. To meet more deadlines, concurrency control protocols can be modified to favor more urgent transactions. Another approach is to utilize the semantics-based protocols in real-time applications to allow more concurrent executions in favor of more urgent timing constraints. We discuss techniques that can be used to design and implement real-time databases.