Semantic Information Integration in the Large: Adaptability, Extensibility, and Scalability of the Context Mediation Approach

24 Pages Posted: 12 May 2005

See all articles by Thomas Gannon

Thomas Gannon

MITRE Corporation

Stuart Madnick

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Allen Moulton

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Michael Siegel

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Marwan Sabbouh

MITRE Corporation

Hongwei (Harry) Zhu

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Date Written: May 2005

Abstract

There is pressing need for effectively integrating information from an ever increasing number of available sources both on the web and in other existing systems. A key difficulty of achieving this goal comes from the pervasive heterogeneities in all levels of information systems. Existing and emerging technologies, such as the Web, ODBC, XML, and Web Services, provide essential capabilities in resolving heterogeneities in the hardware and software platforms, but they do not address the semantic heterogeneity of the data itself. A robust solution to this problem needs to be adaptable, extensible, and scalable.

In this paper, we identify the deficiencies of traditional approaches that address this problem using hand-coded programs or require complete data standardization. The COntext INterchange (COIN) approach overcomes these deficiencies by declaratively representing data semantics and using a mediator to create the necessary conversion programs using a small number of conversion rules. The capabilities of COIN is demonstrated using an intelligence information integration example consisting of 150 data sources, where COIN can automatically generate the over 22,000 conversion programs needed to enable semantic integration using only six parametizable conversion rules. This paper makes a unique contribution by providing a systematic evaluation of COIN and other commonly practiced approaches.

Keywords: semantic integration, adaptability, extensibility, scalability, context

Suggested Citation

Gannon, Thomas and Madnick, Stuart E. and Moulton, Allen and Siegel, Michael and Sabbouh, Marwan and Zhu, Hongwei, Semantic Information Integration in the Large: Adaptability, Extensibility, and Scalability of the Context Mediation Approach (May 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=722613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.722613

Thomas Gannon

MITRE Corporation ( email )

202 Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
United States

Stuart E. Madnick (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E53-321
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-6671 (Phone)
617-253-3321 (Fax)

Allen Moulton

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ( email )

Center of International Studies
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States

Michael Siegel

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E53-323
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-2937 (Phone)
617-258-7579 (Fax)

Marwan Sabbouh

MITRE Corporation ( email )

202 Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
United States

Hongwei Zhu

University of Massachusetts Lowell ( email )

One University Avenue
Lowell, MA 01854
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
194
Abstract Views
3,067
Rank
282,310
PlumX Metrics