Use of middleware facilities in interoperable databases

Many contemporary inter-networked databases simply co-exist and act in isolation. The participating systems are typically heterogeneous since they have been developed under different usage models, data modeling formalisms and platforms. Yet there is an ever increasing demand to create a unified database system in such a way that users can have efficient access to distributed information resources. In this paper we present an architectural framework that can assist in building such coherent aggregates of database systems. Key features of this framework find their origin in distributed environments such as the OSF's DCE, OMG's OMA, and the ANSAware. However, we augment these features in order to facilitate intricate inter-database operations and negotiation.