Semantic system for integrating software components

• US 7,823,123 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2006
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitre Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitre Corporation
• Inventors: Sabbouh, Marwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): UNG, LANNY N
• Application Number:
  US11/377,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 Days
• Field of Search: 717/140
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

A system and method for integrating databases and/or web services into a searchable ontological structure. The structure allows free-form searching of the combined system, discovering an execution path through the ontology to provide answers to queries that may require accessing multiple systems to resolve, without a need for knowledge of the available databases and services or of query syntax by the user. The same technologies that integrate databases and web services into a single ontological structure may also provide interoperability between the numerous information systems within modern enterprises. Context ontologies are constructed to capture ubiquitous enterprise concepts and their representations across the enterprise. By mapping information system data models to these context ontologies, information that originates in one part of the enterprise may be used across the enterprise in a highly automated fashion.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing two or more distinct information systems, each information system containing an information system ontology and corresponding information system data model;

providing a context ontology, the context ontology capturing common concepts and relating the various representations of a common concept within the concepts in the distinct information system ontologies;

mapping the concepts of each of the two or more information system ontologies to each other and to the concepts within the context ontology;

mapping a translator web service ontology representing a translator web service having one or more structured inputs and outputs to the context ontology to create an augmented ontology;

providing a service agent to interpret mappings and to reason with mapped ontologies;

specifying one or more data instances from a source information system of the distinct information systems as inputs to the translator web service;

specifying one or more concepts on a target information system of the distinct information systems as outputs to the translator web service;

searching the mapped ontologies for an execution path between the one or more desired input data instances on the source information system and the corresponding output concepts on the target information system, the execution path traversing through concepts of the translator web service ontology; and

generating executable code that accepts one or more desired input data instances from a source information system and invokes the execution path to create the corresponding output data instance in the specified target information system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said context ontology captures at least one of the commonly held Position, Time, Types of Things, Geometric Shapes, Roles, Status, or Units of Measure concepts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said provided information systems also comprise an associated information system web service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said service agent is an Ontology Mapper, an Onto-Mapper, or a Mapping Interpreter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said service agent is automatically invoked by the translator web service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the mapped ontologies for an execution path further comprises:

mapping the source information system data model onto the source information system ontology; and

invoking the translator web service to return an execution path between the input data instances on the source information system and the corresponding output concepts on the target information systems.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein invoking the translator web service to return an execution path between the input data instances on a source information system and the corresponding output representations on a target information system comprises:

determining an initial execution path between data instances on the source information system and the corresponding concepts on the target information system; and

invoking the service agent, wherein the service agent discovers and resolves mismatches between the source and target information systems and returns an execution path between the source data instance and the target concept.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said initial execution path is determined using graph traversal algorithms.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said service agent resolves any combination of contextual or semantic mismatches between source and target information systems.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating executable code further comprises:

invoking the execution path to obtain a target concept that contextually matches a source data instance; and

reasoning with the various representations of the common concept within the concepts on the target information system ontology to create a target data instance that contextually matches the source data instance.

11. A system comprising:

a first information system associated with a first ontology comprising a first representation of a common concept;

a second information system associated with a second ontology comprising a second representation of the common concept, wherein the second representation is distinct from the first representation;

a web service ontology describing concepts and relationships of an interface for a web service;

a service agent configured to map concepts from the first ontology, the second ontology, a context ontology capturing the common concept, and the web service ontology to each other to create an augmented ontology; and

a computing device configured to;

search the augmented ontology for an execution path between an input to the first information system and a desired output from the second information system, the execution path traversing through concepts of the web service ontology, and

generate executable code that accepts the input and invokes the execution path to produce the desired output.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the context ontology captures at least one of the commonly held Position, Time, Types of Things, Geometric Shapes, Roles, Status, or Units of Measure concepts.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising an associated information system web service.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the service agent is an Ontology Mapper, an Onto-Mapper, or a Mapping Interpreter.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the service agent is configured to be automatically invoked by the web service.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is configured to search the augmented ontology for an execution path using graph traversal algorithms.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the service agent is configured to resolve any combination of contextual or semantic mismatches between the first and second information systems.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

invoke the execution path to obtain a target concept, corresponding to the desired output, that contextually matches a source data instance; and

reason with the first and second representations of the common concept to create a target data instance that contextually matches the source data instance.

12. A method comprising:

creating a context ontology capturing a common concept from a first ontology and a second ontology;

relating a first representation of the common concept from the first ontology to a second representation of the common concept from the second ontology, wherein the first representation and the second representation are distinct;

providing a web service ontology describing the concepts and relationships of a web service interface;

mapping concepts from the first ontology, the second ontology, the context ontology and the domain ontology to each other to create an augmented ontology;

searching the augmented ontology for an execution path between an input to the first ontology and a desired output from the second ontology, the execution path traversing through concepts of the web service ontology; and

generating executable code that accepts the input and invokes the execution path to produce the desired output.