A Unified Data Model for Conceptual Data Modeling

In this paper, a conceptual data model, called the UDM(Unified Data Model), to efficiently represent database structures related with object technology and complex structured data, is proposed. This model integrates major features of modern data models, such as E-R model, Semantic Object Model, and UML, especially from the viewpoint of database design. This model is basically a simplified, but extended version of the Object-Relationship Model, which was proposed to model complex structures of temporal-spatial multimedia data. This model incorporates some of the important semantic and structural information of modern database applications and it is designed to support all of the major logical database models, including relational, object-relational, object-oriented, and (semi-)structured databases. A special diagrammatic technique, called the UDD(Unified Data Diagram), is introduced as a tool for database design. Also, possible ways to derive logical views of data from this unified data model are presented. The proposed model can be utilized as a convenient and practical tool for conceptual database designs.