An object-oriented view of backend databases in a mobile environment for navy and marine corps applications

Abstract

A Database Management System (DBMS) is system software for managing a large amount of data in secondary memory. The standard DBMS used today in both industry and the military is the Relational DBMS (RDBMS). The RDBMS is based upon the relational paradigm, whereas modern software development technologies that interact with the RDBMS are based upon the object-oriented paradigm. This difference in paradigms presents a conceptual mismatch which greatly reduces programmer and developer productivity. Additionally, wireless handheld devices have become ubiquitous both in the military and in the community at large. These handheld devices provide a convenient means of information access. To date, the military has failed to capitalize on the use of handheld devices as a convenient means of information access with respect to the large amounts of information stored in its databases. This thesis investigates various database application architectures and proposes an architecture that will not only overcome the conceptual mismatch between the relational and object-oriented paradigms, but also allows handheld device access to the database. A proof-of-concept prototype database application that provides handheld device access to a military personnel database is built to show the viability of the proposed architecture.