Checking structural integrity for metadata repository systems by means of description logics

Abstract

The organization of the metadata in repository systems exhibits a complex structure which is layered, multi-level and dynamically adaptable; it is insufficiently specified in existing repository system standard how to ensure structural integrity, the above two reasons lead to the violation of structural integrity frequently during the creation of the metadata structure based on Meta Object Facility(MOF), thus affect the stability of repository systems. However, structural integrity checking for repository systems based on MOF is difficult because MOF is rendered to users by graphs, which lack precise semantics. In this paper, we try to solve this problem by means of Description Logics (DLs). The approach is based on a particular formal logic of the family of Description Logics. We make a study of how to formalize the different levels of MOF architecture into the DL knowledge base and how to check inconsistencies automatically using query and reasoning mechanism provided by the Description Logic. We perform performance evaluation for structural integrity checking prototypical system implemented in terms of the approach, the results are encouraging. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.