MOBILE AGENT BASED INFORMATION RETREIVAL SYSTEM FOR HETEROGENOUS DATABASES

Abstract

The problem of retrieving information and interoperability among set of heterogeneous databases containing relevant information situated at remote sites is important issue. Continuous network connection to the remote databases may not be available or the connection cost may be high. The remote databases may be autonomous. We may have a partial knowledge of schema model of those databases, containing data of similar domain. To resolve such problems, a mobile agent based framework, which supports the integration of local schemas, is made by mapping them to an abstract database model. The framework supports light-weight, portable and autonomous clients and takes into consideration the fact that local schemas are autonomous and proprietary, which makes the modification of the schema into global format infeasible. This approach also allows local users to query heterogeneous databases in a way they are used to. Mobile agents perform the task of automated query transformation and protect users from the troublesome task of semantic and representational discrepancies among heterogeneous databases. The main characteristic of the framework is that the query transformation agent is used to support automated query transformation that protects users from the troublesome task of semantic and representational discrepancies. The approach uses IBM aglets system as a platform for agent generation and for connecting the local databases.