Using semantic values to facilitate interoperability among heterogeneous information systems

Abstract

Large organizations need to exchange information among many separately-developed systems. In order for this exchange to be useful, the individual systems must agree on the meaning of their exchanged data. That is, the organization must ensure semantic interoperability. This paper provides a theory of semantic values as a unit of exchange that facilitates semantic interoperability between heterogeneous information systems. We show how semantic values can either be stored explicitly or defined by environments. A system architecture is presented that allows autonomous components to share semantic values. The key component in this architecture is called the context mediator, whose job is to identify and construct the semantic values being sent, determine when the exchange is meaningful, and convert the semantic values to the form required by the receiver. Our theory is then applied to the relational model. We provide an interpretation of standard SQL queries in which context conversions and manipulations occur completely transparently to the user. We also introduce an extension of SQL, called Context-SQL (C-SQL), in which the context of a semantic value can be accessed and updated explicitly. Finally, we describe the implementation of a prototype context mediator for a relational C-SQL system.

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