CONTEXT INTERCHANGE - A LATTICE BASED APPROACH

The level of semantic data interoperability between a source and a rec eiver is a function of the context interchange mechanism that operates between the source and the receiver. The semantic interoperability me chanisms in existing systems are usually static in nature and cannot c ope with changes in the semantics of data either at the source or at t he receiver. The paper proposes a context interchange mechanism based on lattice theory which can handle changes in the semantics of data at both the source and the receiver. A site-copy selection algorithm is also presented which selects the set of sources that can supply semant ically meaningful data to the query of a particular source.