Towards a Scalable Heterogeneous P2P Data and Knowledge Sharing Facility

Starting with research issues, the paper explores how a scalable P2P/DAKS facility can be supported with inter-peer schema heterogeneity, while preserving peer autonomy, such that a given peer can join multiple P2P coalitions (i.e. networks) of its interest. Peers need to provide coalition-specific ontologies of their schemas, which are dynamically integrated and managed by the system. The scalability is provided through the concepts of topic-tree, class, minder and domain, all of which can change dynamically without requiring any action from the peer users. An associated central issue covered is integration technique and integration compatibility of ontologies.