A Prototype for Research on Heterogeneous Database Systems

Abstract:

When two organizations decide to share the information in their databases, it is not uncommon for them to find that the data stored in their respective computer systems are kept in incompatible database management systems. To allow users to query the combined database in a straightforward manner, a
mechanism is needed that will mask the details of each particular system and present a homogeneous interface to the collection of database systems. A heterogeneous database system enables users to transparently access the data contained in a multiplicity of differing databases. In this paper we describe
some of the issues that must be addressed in the implementation of heterogeneous database systems, and in particular we focus on resolving the conflicts that arise in data integration. We also describe the design of a prototype that is currently being built to conduct research on this problem, one of whose salient features is the use of an embedded expert system to aid in data integration.