Framework for Classifying and Resolving Semantic Conflicts Using the EnhancedEntity-Relationship Model

摘要

In today's organizations, information in current databases is stored in a varietyof heterogeneous systems and data organizations. This situation causes problems when trying to integrate them into a federated or multidatabase solution. Particularly troublesome is semantic conflict, or differences in the meanings of data structures and definitions in heterogeneous databases. This thesis proposes a systematic approach towards identifying, classifying and resolving semantic conflicts. Using an entity relationship approach as the integrating model, a framework is developed which describes all possible semantic conflicts among the underlying schemas. This framework can be employed as a methodological tool during an integration effort. Possible resolution strategies are offered for each type of conflict and applied to the separate databases to realize a common global schema which could be used to formulate effective queries against the total original volume of data.