Information Systems Interoperability

ISI - EC-AUS003

Keywords: interoperability, heterogeneous systems, intranet and internet markets, information discovery, information brokering, distributed object management

Start Date: 1 November 93 / Status: finished / Duration: 36 months

[ participants / contact]

Objectivies and Approach

The project conducts research on the architecture, modelling and management of information infrastuctures for the needs of continuously changing distributed organisational environments. Interoperation is the key objective of our research. Interoperable systems are systems composed from autonomous, locally managed, heterogeneous components. They are required to cooperate seamlessly to provide complex services and support corporate-wide business processes. Such systems are generally open and subject to continuing change.

Our approach consists in the design of a comprehensive object management architecture including domain oriented meta-models for information brokering, an intelligent combination of filter-browser and wrapper techniques with traditional database query interfaces for information discovery, enhanced service trading facilities, and platform-independent management components.

European links: The action will build upon ESPRIT project IS-CORE (6071).

Progress and Results

The research within ISI focused on the interoperation of open distributed systems from three different perspectives: interoperation of requirements gathered from various organisational viewpoints (e.g. policies, agents), interoperation of heterogeneous information systems (e.g. schema integration, cross-network information brokering), and computational interaction and distributed systems engineering (e.g. through uniform operational interfaces, common communication bus).

Information Dissemination Activities and/or Exploitation

Intermediate results have been published in journals, international conferences and workshops. Conceptual and technical results of the three-years project will be collected in a joint book that will be published by Wiley. It is planned to present major project findings and prototype components in a workshop that will be held in the framework of a suitable international conference.

Further, an official university centre called Interoperable Systems Research Centre (I-Op), is about to be set up in London, UK. Preliminary information can be found at http://web.soi.city.ac.uk/homes/acwf/iop.html.

Coordinator

FernUniversität Hagen (FUH)
Chair of Data Processing Technology
Profilstr. 10b
P.O.Box 940
D - 58084 HAGEN, D

EU Partners

FUH, D
RWTH Aachen, D
Imperial College, UK

Non-EU Partners

Queensland University of Technology, AUS
Monash University, AUS

CONTACT POINT

Prof. Bernd Krämer
Phone: +49 2331 987 371
Fax: +49 2331 987 375
E-mail: bernd.kraemer@fernuni.hagen.de
WWW: http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/DTV