QUERY ROUTING IN A PEER-TO-PEER SEMANTIC LINK NETWORK

A semantic link peer-to-peer (P2P) network specifies and manages semantic relationships between peers' data schemas and can be used as the semantic layer of a scalable Knowledge Grid. The proposed approach consists of an automatic semantic link discovery method, a tool for building and maintaining P2P semantic link networks (P2PSLNs), a semantic-based peer similarity measurement for efficient query routing, and the schema mapping algorithms for query reformulation and heterogeneous data integration. The proposed approach has three important aspects. First, it uses semantic links to enrich the relationships between peers' data schemas. Second, it considers not only nodes but also the XML structure in measuring the similarity between schemas to efficiently and accurately forward queries to relevant peers. Third, it copes with semantic and structural heterogeneity and data inconsistency so that peers can exchange and translate heterogeneous information within a uniform view.     

网格环境下基于XML的异构数据集成系统

分析地震、地质行业的数据资源特点,在数据网格中间件OGSA-DAI基础上提出一种基于XML的分布异构数据访问与集成框架,实现数据的透明访问和联合查询。系统以XML作为公共数据模型,使用三层模式集成机制,以XQuery同时作为XML模式之间的映射语言及全局查询语言,简化全局视图的构造和系统的查询处理。     

一种有效的贪婪模式匹配算法

模式匹配问题是意图获得两个模式中所包含个体对象之间的语义匹配和映射,其结果表示源模式的个体对象与目标模式的个体对象之间存在特定的语义关联.它在数据库应用领域起到关键性的作用,例如数据集成、电子商务、数据仓库、XML消息交换等,特别地,它已成为元数据管理的基本问题.然而,模式匹配很大程度上依赖人工的操作,是一个费时费力的过程.模式匹配问题可以归约为一个组合优化问题:多标记图匹配问题.首先,将模式表示为多标记图,将模式匹配转换为多标记图匹配问题.其次,提出多标记图的相似性度量方法,进而提出基于多标记图相似性的模式匹配目标优化函数.最后,在这个目标函数基础上设计实现了一个贪婪匹配算法,其最显著的特点是综合多种可用的标记信息,灵活准确地获得最优的匹配结果.     

P2P环境下数据管理系统上的Top-k查询

目前大多数P2P系统只提供文件的共享,缺乏数据管理能力.基于关系数据库上的关键搜索,本文提出了一种在P2P环境下共享数据库的新框架,其中每个节点上的数据库被看成是一个文档集,用户不用考虑数据库的模式结构信念,简化了不同节点数据库模式间的映射过程,能更好地适应P2P的分散和动态特性.将基于直方图的分层Top-k查询算法扩展到P2P环境下的数据库管理系统上,文档集和数据库的查询被统一起来,一致对待.在查询处理期间,直方图可以自动更新,同时根据查询结果,邻居节点可以自调整,具有自适应性.实验结果表明,基于关键词的数据库共享突破了传统的数据库共享模式,简化了数据访问方式,而基于直方图的Top-k查询算法提高了查询效率.     

基于本体的XML语义集成和查询的研究

XML因其结构上的灵活性和易扩展性已经成为Web上异构数据转换和传输的标准,但是含有不同模式的XML数据源之间却很难进行相互操作,这给XML数据检索带来了更大的不便.先提出一种从XML模式到OWL本体的映射算法,然后借助共享全局本体和同义词典实现多个映射后的本体在语义上的集成从而解决XML结构异构的问题,最后提出一种利用语义集成进行XML语义查询的框架并初步实现.     

VEMBP:支持更新的XML树编码方法

对有序XML文档树进行编码,不需要访问XML原始文件就能够实现对XML数据的管理,提高了XML管理系统的效率。针对查询提出的编码方案具有很高的查询性能,但更新效率很低。为提高更新性能而设计的方案存在查询效率低或者编码空间大等问题。为了在提高更新XML文档效率的同时不对查询性能和编码空间产生负面影响,提出了一种新的编码方法VEMBP(Vector Encoding Method Based of Prime),该方法利用向量表示有序XML节点之间的顺序关系,采用素数表示有序XML文档节点之间的结构信息;并设计了一种算法来实现在没有牺牲查询性能的前提下完全避免更新过程中的二次编码和重新计算,降低了更新代价,同时编码空间也得到了控制。实验结果显示,VEMBP具有较好的查询和更新性能。     

Tractable XML data exchange via relations

We consider data exchange for XML documents: given source and target schemas, a mapping between them, and a document conforming to the source schema, construct a target document and answer target queries in a way that is consistent with the source information. The problem has primarily been studied in the relational context, in which data-exchange systems have also been built. Since many XML documents are stored in relations, it is natural to consider using a relational system for XML data exchange. However, there is a complexity mismatch between query answering in relational and in XML data exchange. This indicates that to make the use of relational systems possible, restrictions have to be imposed on XML schemas and mappings, as well as on XML shredding schemes. We isolate a set of five requirements that must be fulfilled in order to have a faithful representation of the XML data-exchange problem by a relational translation. We then demonstrate that these requirements naturally suggest the in-lining technique for data-exchange tasks. Our key contribution is to provide shredding algorithms for schemas, documents, mappings and queries, and demonstrate that they enable us to correctly perform XML data-exchange tasks using a relational system.     

Query generation for retrieving data from distributed semistructured documents using a metadata interface

We describe a method for generating queries for retrieving data from distributed heterogeneous semistructured documents, and its implementation in the metadata interface DDXMI (distributed document XML metadata interchange). The proposed system generates local queries appropriate to local schemas from a user query over the global schema. The system constructs mappings between global schema and local schemas (extracted from local documents if not given), path substitution, and node identification for resolving the heterogeneity among nodes with the same label that often exist in semistructured data. The system uses Quilt as its XML query language. An experiment is reported over three local semistructured documents: ‘thesis’, ‘reports’, and ‘journal’ documents with ‘article’ global schema. The prototype was developed under Windows system with Java and JavaCC.     

Inconsistency tolerance in P2P data integration: An epistemic logic approach

We study peer-to-peer (P2P) data integration, where each peer models an autonomous system that exports data in terms of its own schema, and data interoperation is achieved by means of mappings among the peer schemas, rather than through a unique global schema. We propose a multi-modal epistemic logical formalization based on the idea that each peer is conceived as a rational agent that exchanges knowledge/belief with other peers, thus nicely modeling the modular structure of the system. We then address the issue of dealing with possible inconsistencies, and distinguish between two types of inconsistencies, called local and P2P, respectively. We define a nonmonotonic extension of our logic that is able to reason on the beliefs of peers under both local and P2P inconsistency tolerance. Tolerance to local inconsistency essentially means that the presence of inconsistency within one peer does not affect the consistency of the whole system. Tolerance to P2P inconsistency means being able to resolve inconsistencies arising from the interaction between peers. We study query answering in the new nonmonotonic logic, with the main goal of establishing its decidability and its computational complexity. Indeed, we show that, under reasonable assumptions on peer schemas, query answering is decidable, and is coNP-complete with respect to data complexity, i.e., the size of the data stored at the peers.     

P2P数据管理系统中数据表的定位

P2P数据管理系统已经成为对等计算领域的研究重点。语义异构是P2P数据管理系统的首要问题。为了解决此问题,在每个数据源节点对共享的数据表的表名和属性名分别定义一系列关键字作为语义映射的媒介,具有相同关键字的异构数据源之间自动建立映射关系。这些关键字就形成了共享数据的外模式。但在节点内部,没有将外模式真正地物化为视图。定义好的关键字使用外模式描述文件分布到整个网络中。在查询的过程中,找到外模式描述文件后,立即将查询请求中的所有别名转换为真实的数据表名和属性名,从而既可以方便地按照任意名字找到需要的数据表,又可以减少数据备份的数量,简化查询算法,提高系统效率。     

A research agenda for query processing in large-scale peer data management systems

Peer Data Management Systems (Pdms) are a novel, useful, but challenging paradigm for distributed data management and query processing. Conventional integrated information systems have a hierarchical structure with an integration component that manages a global schema and distributes queries against this schema to the underlying data sources. Pdms are a natural extension to this architecture by allowing each participating system (peer) to act both as a data source and as an integrator. Peers are interconnected by schema mappings, which guide the rewriting of queries between the heterogeneous schemas, and thus form a P2P (peer-to-peer)-like network.Despite several years of research, the development of efficient Pdms still holds many challenges. In this article we first survey the state of the art on peer data management: We classify Pdms by characteristics concerning their system model, their semantics, their query planning schemes, and their maintenance. Then we systematically examine open research directions in each of those areas. In particular, we observe that research results from both the domain of P2P systems and of conventional distributed data management can have an impact on the development of Pdms.     

基于XML的异构数据集成的研究与实现

为了实现异构环境中数据集成的目标,提出了基于XML、B／S三层架构的企业异构数据库之间数据共享的实施方案,设计和实现了一个通用的异构数据集成系统。文章介绍了该系统的核心体系结构、工作流程和各模块的功能;阐述了XML文档模式的验证和提取、XML文档间的映射、XML文档模式和数据库关系模式之间的映射等关键模块的设计和实现;最后简要说明了实现系统所采用的相关Java技术。     

Schema mediation for large-scale semantic data sharing

Intuitively, data management and data integration tools should be well suited for exchanging information in a semantically meaningful way. Unfortunately, they suffer from two significant problems: they typically require a common and comprehensive schema design before they can be used to store or share information, and they are difficult to extend because schema evolution is heavyweight and may break backward compatibility. As a result, many large-scale data sharing tasks are more easily facilitated by non-database-oriented tools that have little support for semantics.The goal of the peer data management system (PDMS) is to address this need: we propose the use of a decentralized, easily extensible data management architecture in which any user can contribute new data, schema information, or even mappings between other peers schemas. PDMSs represent a natural step beyond data integration systems, replacing their single logical schema with an interlinked collection of semantic mappings between peers individual schemas.This paper considers the problem of schema mediation in a PDMS. Our first contribution is a flexible language for mediating between peer schemas that extends known data integration formalisms to our more complex architecture. We precisely characterize the complexity of query answering for our language. Next, we describe a reformulation algorithm for our language that generalizes both global-as-view and local-as-view query answering algorithms. Then we describe several methods for optimizing the reformulation algorithm and an initial set of experiments studying its performance. Finally, we define and consider several global problems in managing semantic mappings in a PDMS.Received: 16 December 2002, Accepted: 14 April 2003, Published online: 12 December 2003Edited by: V. Atluri     

基于DTD的XML文档到关系模式的映射规则研究

近年来,XML已逐渐成为Internet上不同平台间数据表示及数据交换的标准。将XML数据存储到技术成熟的关系数据库中已是一种比较主流的选择。在XML文档到关系模式的映射规则这个领域已做的研究中,一些已经提出的映射规则虽然考虑到了映射过程中产生的数据冗余、数据语义以及约束保留等问题,但是解决上述问题有时会导致XML数据的查询效率的降低。文章针对上述问题,在基于结构、约束保持及语义保持等方面对映射规则进行了更深入的研究,提出相应一系列基于DTD的映射规则,并根据XML文档蕴涵的语义信息提出了建立对应的关系模式中的索引,以使其在XML数据的查询效率及数据冗余消除方面有所提高。该文还通过使用一些公用数据集,进行了实验与分析,验证了以上提出规则的有效性。     

基于领域本体和关系模型的XML语义集成方法研究

由于缺乏足够的语义信息,不同模式的XML数据之间很难进行互操作。针对油气井工程中的XML数据集成需求,借助领域全局本体,提出一种模式无关的XML语义集成方法。该方法首先在XML Path路径与领域本体之间进行语义映射,屏蔽其模式差异;然后,按照模型映射方法将XML存储为关系数据;最后通过查询重写将SPARQL转换为SQL语句,实现语义查询。该方法对XML模式进行语义标注,利用关系数据库存储与查询XML数据,能有效处理领域XML数据的语义集成。     

Designing XML documents from conceptual schemas and workload information

Due to the increase of XML-based applications, XML schema design has become an important task. One approach is to consider conceptual schemas as a basis for generating XML documents compliant to consensual information of specific domains. However, the conversion of conceptual schemas to XML schemas is not a straightforward process and inconvenient design decisions can lead to a poor query processing on XML documents generated. This paper presents a conversion approach which considers data and query workload estimated for XML applications, in order to generate an XML schema from a conceptual schema. Load information is used to produce XML schemas which can respond well to the main queries of an XML application. We evaluate our approach through a case study carried out on a native XML database. The experimental results demonstrate that the XML schemas generated by our methodology contribute to a better query performance than related approaches.

Efficient schema-based XML-to-Relational data mapping

Storing and querying XML documents using a RDBMS is a challenging problem since one needs to resolve the conflict between the hierarchical, ordered nature of the XML data model and the flat, unordered nature of the relational data model. This conflict can be resolved by the following XML-to-Relational mappings: schema mapping, data mapping and query mapping. In this paper, we propose: (i) a lossless schema mapping algorithm to generate a database schema from a DTD, which makes several improvements over existing algorithms, (ii) two linear data mapping algorithms based on DOM and SAX, respectively, to map ordered XML data to relational data. To our best knowledge, there is no published linear schema-based data mapping algorithm for mapping ordered XML data to relational data. Experimental results are presented to show that our algorithms are efficient and scalable.     

基于XML的异构数据库集成系统构架与开发

分析了XML在解决异构数据库集成问题中的优势,并在此基础上提出了基于XML的异构数据库集成方案,实现了分布式异构数据库的透明访问和联合查询。对于架构中的主要环节给出了具体实现方法,并着重研究和验证了架构中XML与数据库模式映射、数据透明访问、联合查询处理等关键问题。     

MapMerge: correlating independent schema mappings

One of the main steps toward integration or exchange of data is to design the mappings that describe the (often complex) relationships between the source schemas or formats and the desired target schema. In this paper, we introduce a new operator, called MapMerge, that can be used to correlate multiple, independently designed schema mappings of smaller scope into larger schema mappings. This allows a more modular construction of complex mappings from various types of smaller mappings such as schema correspondences produced by a schema matcher or pre-existing mappings that were designed by either a human user or via mapping tools. In particular, the new operator also enables a new “divide-and-merge” paradigm for mapping creation, where the design is divided (on purpose) into smaller components that are easier to create and understand and where MapMerge is used to automatically generate a meaningful overall mapping. We describe our MapMerge algorithm and demonstrate the feasibility of our implementation on several real and synthetic mapping scenarios. In our experiments, we make use of a novel similarity measure between two database instances with different schemas that quantifies the preservation of data associations. We show experimentally that MapMerge improves the quality of the schema mappings, by significantly increasing the similarity between the input source instance and the generated target instance. Finally, we provide a new algorithm that combines MapMerge with schema mapping composition to correlate flows of schema mappings.     

Normalization and optimization of schema mappings

Schema mappings are high-level specifications that describe the relationship between database schemas. They are an important tool in several areas of database research, notably in data integration and data exchange. However, a concrete theory of schema mapping optimization including the formulation of optimality criteria and the construction of algorithms for computing optimal schema mappings is completely lacking to date. The goal of this work is to fill this gap. We start by presenting a system of rewrite rules to minimize sets of source-to-target tuple-generating dependencies. Moreover, we show that the result of this minimization is unique up to variable renaming. Hence, our optimization also yields a schema mapping normalization. By appropriately extending our rewrite rule system, we also provide a normalization of schema mappings containing equality-generating target dependencies. An important application of such a normalization is in the area of defining the semantics of query answering in data exchange, since several definitions in this area depend on the concrete syntactic representation of the mappings. This is, in particular, the case for queries with negated atoms and for aggregate queries. The normalization of schema mappings allows us to eliminate the effect of the concrete syntactic representation of the mapping from the semantics of query answering. We discuss in detail how our results can be fruitfully applied to aggregate queries.