On integration of relational and object-oriented database systems

The converging trend of relational database technology and object-oriented database technology results in object-relational database systems which extend the relational systems with add-on object features. Efforts from both academic research and industry have been directed into extended data type processing by fully functioned database systems. In this paper, we put forward an approach for realizing object-relational systems by deploying current distributed database technology. The paper first discusses the object-relational data model and its query language. Then a hetrogeneous database architecture is presented for realizing object-relational technology by integrating relational and object-oriented database systems. Two main functions of the architecture: schema transformation and query translation are further discussed and correspondent algorithms are proposed.