Distributed relational decision framework for scalable enterprise systems

Describes a framework to support enterprise-level decision-making in network-based scalable systems. The fundamental principle of this approach asserts that decision tasks over a set of multiple, distributed, logically interrelated databases may be cast in the semantics of the underlying distributed database management system (DBMS). In this form, the augmented relational decision framework takes advantage of the principles of normalization and decomposition that are inherent to the relational DBMS model. The decision process is viewed as an instantiation of the relational schema, and the resulting representation of normal form hierarchies and data dependencies structures the process. Definition of a value function (or rule set) over the augmented relational decision space guides the search for desirable instances of the decision relations that constitute the suggested outcomes.