Title:
KOMET -- A System for the Integration of Heterogeneous Information
Sources
Authors: Jacques Calmet, Sebastian Jekutsch, Peter Kullmann,
Joachim Schü.
Abstract We present KOMET, an architecture for the intelligent
integration of heterogeneous information sources. It is based on the idea
of a mediator, which is an independent software layer between an application
and various knowledge sources which need to be accessed. We present an
especially suitable logic-based language for encoding typical mediation
tasks like conditional preference strategies, schema integration or data
inconsistency resolution. Using annotated logic, KOMET is able to perform
various common types of reasoning, such as probabilistic, fuzzy, paraconsistent
and certain types of temporal and spatial reasoning. In combination with
an extensible type system and the embedding of external knowledge sources
as constraint domains, our mediation language offers a rich framework,
which not only facilitates access to structured information, but as well
supports unstructured and semi-structured information. A number of examples
show the practical application of our approach.
The postscript version of this paper
is available.