Facilitating connectivity in composite information systems
Richard Wang, Stuart Madnick · ACM SIGMIS Database the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems · 1989
Timely access to multiple disparate databases which were independently developed and administered to produce composite information has become increasingly critical for organizations to gain competitive advantage. However, many inter-database problems such as inconsistency, ambiguity, and contradiction remain unresolved. This paper presents an approach for resolving these problems. The techniques employed in this approach include schema integration, inter-database tables, attribute subsetting, object hierarchies, and heuristic rules. Schema integration techniques resolve the incompatibilities among the databases at the schema level. Inter-database tables resolve the semantic inconsistency and concept granularity at the instance value level. The inter-database instance identification table identifies an instance across databases. Object hierarchies represent schemata as well as instances. Finally, heuristic rules are used to facilitate the construction of the inter-database instance identification table and the production of composite information.