Towards Semantic Integration of Components using a Service-Based Architecture

The post facto integration of independently developed software components has not been particularly successful. Lack of agreed upon technological standards and the absence of semantic integration models are two major contributing factors. While bridging component standards at the wiring level has been addressed through the use of adapters and proxies, no such alternatives exist for bridging the gap between components at the operational and semantic levels. In this paper we present a framework for component integration at the semantic level. Our approach is based on the creation of ontology that captures operational and semantic details about the desired components. Through automated reasoning of the ontology it will be possible to infer information about the mediation process for two components. The information is then used to create an appropriate adapter that will connect to the two components and serve as the mediator.