Network model

Encyclopedia : N : NE : NET : Network model

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Database models
Common models Hierarchical Network Relational Object-relational Object
Other models Associative Concept-oriented Multi-dimensional Star schema

The network model is a database model conceived as flexible way of representing objects and their relationships. Its original inventor was Charles Bachman, and it was developed into a standard specification published in 1969 by the CODASYL Consortium. Where the hierarchical model structures data as a tree of records, with each record having one parent record and many children, the network model allows each record to have multiple parent and child records, forming a lattice structure.

The chief argument in favour of the network model, in comparison to the hierarchic model, was that it allowed a more natural modeling of relationships between entities. Although the model was widely implemented and used, it failed to become dominant for two main reasons. Firstly, IBM chose to stick to the hierarchical model in their established products such as IMS and DL/I. Secondly, it was eventually displaced by the relational model, which offered a higher-level, more declarative interface. Until the early 1980s the performance benefits of the low-level navigational interfaces offered by hierarchical and network databases were persuasive for many large-scale applications, but as hardware became faster, the extra productivity and flexibility of relational systems pushed the network model out of the enterprise database world.

Unlike the relational model, however, which relies on a closed world (such as a centrally-managed database), the network model works well in an open world, making it useful for operating on wider-scale, unreliable, distributed data enabled by the Internet and World Wide Web.

History

In 1969, the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) established the first specification of the network database model. This was followed by a second publication in 1971, which became the basis for most implementations. Subsequent work continued into the early 1980s, culminating in an ISO specification, but this had little influence on products.

See also

• CODASYL
• Navigational database

References

• Charles W. Bachman, The Programmer as Navigator. ACM Turing Award lecture, Communications of the ACM, Volume 16, Issue 11, 1973, pp. 653-658, ISSN [0001-0782], DOI:[10.1145/355611.362534]

External links

• [Network (CODASYL) Data Model]

 

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