How to create history for n: m relationships

Problem:

I have a: m relationship between a table A

and another table B

and this requires the complete history of that relationship, in other words, I should be able to reproduce the status of any point in the past.

Ideas:

My first attempt is to parse the relationship in a 1: m and m: n ratio by inserting a dummy table to preserve the status of the relationship at any point in time when some change occurs. Like this:

TABLE A         TABLE B
--------        ---------
ID   INT        ID    INT                   

TABLE HIST             TABLE CROSS_REF
----------             -----------------
ID        INT          REF_B_ID      INT
REF_A_ID  INT          REF_HIST_ID   INT
VERSION   TIMESTAMP

      

        
        
        
      

    

Pro: Easily request the information you require. Con: This attempt will create a lot of redundant data, especially when the "B" -Side is large and there are only minor changes. (for example, in the "Company - Employee" use case)

A second approach would be to maintain two n: m relationships, one for the current status and one for the changes that have occurred.

TABLE A         TABLE B
--------        ---------
ID   INT        ID    INT                   

TABLE CHANGES          TABLE CROSS_REF
----------             -----------------
REF_A_ID     INT          REF_A_ID      INT
REF_B_ID     INT          REF_B_ID   INT
ACTION_TIME  TIMESTAMP
ACTION_TYPE  VARCHAR

      

        
        
        
      

    

Pro: no redundant data. Con: It is difficult to request status at a certain point in time in the past.

Questions

• Do you have any other suggestion how can I create a data model for this application?
• If there isn't really a better way to solve this: which direction should I go? Or does it mostly depend on the given use case like the example above?
• If I go to the second approach, what might a status request look like at a certain point in time in the past? I can solve this problem on the client side, but I would also like to know a solution on the database side. (PL / SQL would be doable as well)