A Semantic Similarity Analysis for Data Mappings between Heterogeneous XML Schemas

Abstract

One of the most critical steps to integrating heterogeneous e-business applications using different XML schemas is schema mapping, which is known to be costly and error-prone. Past research on schema mapping has not made full use of semantic information imbedded in the hierarchical structure of the XML schema. This chapter investigates the existing schema mapping approaches and proposes an innovative semantic similarity analysis approach to facilitate XML schema mapping, merging and reuse. Several key innovations are introduced to better utilize available semantic information. These innovations include: (1) a layered structure analysis of XML schemas, (2) layer-specific semantic similarity measures, and (3) an efficient semantic similarity analysis using parallel and distributed computing technologies. Experimental results using two different schemas from a real world application demonstrate that the proposed approach is valuable for addressing difficulties in XML schema mapping.