Inter model data integration in a P2P environment

The wide range of data sources available today mean that the integration of heterogeneous data sources is now a common and important problem. It is even more challenging in a P2P environment, peers often do not know in advance which schemas of other peers will suit their information needs and there is potentially a greater diversity of data modelling languages in use. In this paper, we propose a new approach to P2P inter model data integration which supports data model diversity whilst allowing peers to have the flexibility of choosing how to integrate their schemas. We will show how this approach can be used to integrate multiple heterogeneous data sources (CSV text files, XML and SQL) and how the metadata of the (partially) integrated schemas can be distributed and made available for discovery by other peers. We also briefly describe a system being developed by our group that has the discussed features.