An architecture for large scale information systems
David Kenneth Gifford, Robert W. Baldwin, Stephen T. Berlin, John M. Lucassen · ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review · 1985
A new type of system architecture is described that uses both duplex ct)mmunication and wide-area simplex commtmication to implement a single service.A working community inlbrmation system based on this architecture is discussed fiom a systems perspective, with an emphasis on the unique way in which processing is distributed among a confederation of shared servers and private personal systems.In the community infimnation system, each personal system maintains a local, user-defined subset of the databases stored on the shared servers.I)atabase updates are transnfitted to the personal systems via a broadcast packet radio system.This design allows many queries to be processed completely at users' personal machines, and thus reduces the reliance on shared servers.A unifying design principle is that the system is seen as a collection of independent shared and personal databascs, as opposed to a single monolithic database.Query routing is used to hide the system's division into component databases from a user.