Research Statement 1.2 Ontology-based Resource Indexing, Integrating, and Searching 1.2.1 Semantics in Searching

My general research interests lie in the area of distributed searching, overlay networking, and semantic web technologies. My thesis work is driven towards developing efficient and scalable resource discovery techniques for large-scale distributed systems, for example P2P networks and the Grid. Technological advances in the last decades, such as cheap computing power, high-volume data storage, and the ubiquity of networking have made it possible to create a pervasive, world wide resource sharing infrastructure. One of the main challenges in such large distributed systems is to design an efficient resource discovery mechanism. The resource discovery technology required to achieve this ambitious global vision is still in its infancy, and existing applications have difficulties in achieving both rich searchability and good scalability. The major goal of my research is to obtain effective solutions for practical resource discovery problems in large scale distributed systems. To achieve this goal, my thesis work focuses on the following aspects: constructing efficient network topology for search, adding semantics to search, integrating semantic heterogeneity, designing distributed indexing and searching algorithms, and studying load balancing issues. Details pertaining to the research I have done are provided below, followed by an outline of my further research plans.