Evidential integration of semantically heterogeneous aggregates in distributed databases with imprecision

Abstract

The mass function of evidential theory provides a means of representing ignorance in lack of information. In this paper we propose mass function models of aggregate views held as summary tables in a distributed database. This model particularly suits statistical databases in which the data usually presents imprecision, including missing values and overlapped categories of aggregate classification. A new aggregation combination operator is developed to accomplish the integration of semantically heterogeneous aggregate views in such distributed databases. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.