Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 41
Claim 1
Independent Claim
139 words
A system for querying heterogeneous data sources distributed over a network, said system comprising: a plurality of heterogeneous data sources, each of which includes local information relating to a first semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; a request translator associated with each requestor, said request translator receiving a request having a second semantic data context and comparing said first semantic data context and said second semantic data context to determine if a conflict between those contexts exists, said request translator translating the request, responsive to the conflict determination, into a query having at least one semantic data context associated with at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and a data translator which translates received data from the semantic data contexts associated with the heterogeneous data sources into the semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
139 words
A system for querying heterogeneous data sources distributed over a network, said system comprising: a plurality of heterogeneous data sources, each of which includes local information relating to a first semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; a request translator associated with each requestor, said request translator receiving a request having a second semantic data context and comparing said first semantic data context and said second semantic data context to determine if a conflict between those contexts exists, said request translator translating the request, responsive to the conflict determination, into a query having at least one semantic data context associated with at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and a data translator which translates received data from the semantic data contexts associated with the heterogeneous data sources into the semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
14 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the request is received by said request translator.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
14 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the request is generated by said request translator.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
22 words
The system of claim 1 wherein said request translator determines at least one heterogeneous data source to query based on the request.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
22 words
The system of claim 4 wherein said request translator determines at least one heterogeneous data source to query based on an ontology.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system of claim 4 wherein said request translator detects a difference between the semantic context of data requested by the request and the semantic context of data supplied by the data source and converts the semantic data context of the request into the semantic data context of the data source.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
21 words
The system of claim 6, wherein the conversion is accomplished by a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
12 words
The system of claim 1 wherein said request translator optimizes the query.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 1 further comprising a query transmitter which queries at least one of the heterogeneous data sources using the query.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
12 words
The system of claim 9 wherein said query transmitter optimizes the query.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 9 wherein said query transmitter separates the query into a plurality of sub-queries and queries at least one of the heterogeneous data sources using the sub-queries.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
20 words
The system of claim 11 wherein the query transmitter queries a different data source with each one of the sub-queries.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 1 wherein said data translator translates received data into the semantic data context of the request using a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
137 words
A method for querying heterogeneous data sources over a network, said method comprising the steps of: (a) accessing a plurality of heterogeneous data sources to be queried, each of which includes local information relating to a first semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; (b) receiving a request having a second semantic data context and comparing said first semantic data context and said second semantic data context to determine if a conflict between those contexts exists; (c) translating the request responsive to the conflict determination into a query having at least one semantic data context associated with the at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and (d) translating received data from the first semantic data contexts associated with each of the heterogeneous data sources into the second semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
137 words
A method for querying heterogeneous data sources over a network, said method comprising the steps of: (a) accessing a plurality of heterogeneous data sources to be queried, each of which includes local information relating to a first semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; (b) receiving a request having a second semantic data context and comparing said first semantic data context and said second semantic data context to determine if a conflict between those contexts exists; (c) translating the request responsive to the conflict determination into a query having at least one semantic data context associated with the at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and (d) translating received data from the first semantic data contexts associated with each of the heterogeneous data sources into the second semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of receiving a request before step (a).
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of generating a request before step (a).
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 14 further comprising before step (a) the step of determining at least one heterogeneous data source to query based on the request.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 17 further comprising before step (b) the step of determining at least one heterogeneous data source to query based on an ontology.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
55 words
The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of: detecting a difference between the semantic context of data requested by the request and the semantic context of data supplied by the data source to be queried; and converting the semantic data context of the request into the semantic data context of the data source.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 19 wherein the semantic data context of the request is converted into the semantic data context of the data source using a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 14 further comprising before step (b) the step of optimizing the query.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of querying at least one of the disparate data sources using the translated request.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
32 words
The method of claim 22 wherein said optimization step further comprises: separating the query into a plurality of sub-queries; and querying at least one of the heterogeneous data sources using the sub-queries.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 23 wherein said querying step further comprises querying a different data source with each one of the sub-queries.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
32 words
The method of claim 14 wherein step (b) further comprises translating received data into the semantic data context of the request using a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
119 words
An article of manufacture having computer-readable program means for querying heterogeneous data sources over a network embodied thereon, the article comprising: computer-readable program means for accessing a plurality of heterogeneous data sources to be queried, each of which includes local information relating to semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; computer-readable program means associated with each requestor for translating a request having an associated semantic data context into a query having at least a second semantic data context associated with the at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and computer-readable program means for translating received data from the semantic data contexts associated with the heterogeneous data sources into the semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
119 words
An article of manufacture having computer-readable program means for querying heterogeneous data sources over a network embodied thereon, the article comprising: computer-readable program means for accessing a plurality of heterogeneous data sources to be queried, each of which includes local information relating to semantic data context associated with the heterogeneous data source; computer-readable program means associated with each requestor for translating a request having an associated semantic data context into a query having at least a second semantic data context associated with the at least one of the heterogeneous data sources; and computer-readable program means for translating received data from the semantic data contexts associated with the heterogeneous data sources into the semantic data context associated with the request.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
16 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for receiving a request.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
16 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for generating a request.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
26 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for determining at least one heterogeneous data source to query based on the request.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
24 words
The article of manufacture of claim 29 wherein the determination of at least one heterogeneous data source to query is based on an ontology.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
59 words
The article of manufacture of claim 29 further comprising: computer-readable program means for detecting a difference between the semantic context of data requested by the request and the semantic context of data supplied by the data source; and computer-readable program means for converting the semantic data context of the request into the semantic data context of the data source.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
41 words
The article of manufacture of claim 31 wherein said computer-readable program means for converting the semantic data context of the request into the semantic data context of the data source comprises a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
16 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for optimizing the query.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
25 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for transmitting the query to at least one of the heterogeneous data sources.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
16 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for optimizing the query.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
38 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for separating the query into a plurality of sub-queries and computer-readable program means for querying at least one of the heterogeneous data sources using those sub-queries.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
24 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 further comprising computer-readable program means for querying a different data source with each one of the sub-queries.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
35 words
The article of manufacture of claim 26 wherein said computer-readable program means for translating received data into the semantic data context of the request comprises a pre-defined function, a look-up table, or a database query.