An ontology-based framework for semantic resolution in data exchange

Semantic interoperability among heterogeneous information sources continues to pose enormous challenges to the collaborative design and other communities. In this paper a two-level ontology framework to resolving semantic conflicts in data exchange process is proposed. The top-level ontology defines generic application domain mediation concepts while task-level ontologies represent domain-related understanding. They are connected by semantic mappings, which provide top-level ontology as a mediator by translating the local schema to a common data model. A semi-automatic procedure that assists users to discover plausible semantic relationships between two types of ontology is introduced. Finally, we give an example from a product design scenario, which XML and RDF are chosen as standard syntax and semantic representing language respectively relying on the description and reasoning capabilities.