Data Integration in Distributed Databases

Data integration in a distributed database refers to the production of union-compatible views for similar information expressed dissimilarly in different nodes. Such a facility is needed for location transparency and for easier formulation of global queries over the apparently incompatible data aggregated from different nodes. This paper examines the issues in data integration within a relational context, and proposes a solution based on special relational constructs which produce union-compatible relations. The advantages of this approach over others have also been discussed.