Information Modeling in Multidatabase Systems Beyond Data Modeling

We consider the information modeling issues in en vironments that range from multidatabase manipula tions supporting direct DBMS level interfaces to mul tiple database to multisystem applications involving activities among multiple application systems Infor mation modeling needs in such environments go far beyond the use of traditional data models to develop database schemas or application views Besides mod eling data managed by individual component systems and databases we also need to model operations and activities as well as interdependencies and constraints that span across the systems Because of signi cant interplay between these di erent types of informa tion during informationmanagement activities such as query processing and transaction management a uni form framework for modeling and preferably a single language for specifying all these types of information is highly desirable For an example multisystem ap plication we demonstrate important aspects of such a uniform and comprehensive modeling in the SYN THESIS language