Utility-based Resolution of Data Inconsistencies

13 years 10 months ago

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A virtual database system is software that provides uniﬁed access to multiple information sources. If the sources are overlapping in their contents and independently maintained, then the likelihood of inconsistent answers is high. Solutions are often based on ranking (which sorts the diﬀerent answers according to recurrence) and on fusion (which synthesizes a new value from the diﬀerent alternatives according to a speciﬁc formula). In this paper we argue that both methods are ﬂawed, and we oﬀer alternative solutions that are based on knowledge about the performance of the source data; including features such as recentness, availability, accuracy and cost. These features are combined in a ﬂexible utility function that expresses the overall value of a data item to the user. Utility allows us to (1) deﬁne meaningful ranking on the inconsistent set of answers, and oﬀer the topranked answer as a preferred answer; (2) determine whether a fusion value is indeed better than ...

Amihai Motro, Philipp Anokhin, Aybar C. Acar

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