Information capacity in schema integration and translation

In this class we'll be reading one paper:

Renée J. Miller, Yannis E. Ioannidis, Raghu Ramakrishnan: The Use of Information Capacity in Schema Integration and Translation. VLDB 1993: 120-133. We're reading this paper to give us a good idea about information capacity, a metric for showing what has been lost or retained when going between schemas.

To successfully complete this reading, be ready to write a good response and be prepared for a good in class discussion, I suggest the following strategy:

Really make sure you understand the graph definitions in Definition 2.1
Note that Bijection here is used differently than it was the previous time we encountered it.
The directionalities in definitions 2.2-2.5 are confusing. Make sure you've carefully understood them - it's worth it.
The same is true of understanding the roles of S1 and S2 in G1-G4 for the data integration and view integration examples. Write in S1 and S2 for yourself on Figure 1.... and then check again to make sure you have it right. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Additional background on information capacity can be found in the following optional paper:

Richard Hull: Relative Information Capacity of Simple Relational Database Schemata. PODS 1984: 97-109.

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Rachel Pottinger
E-mail Address: rap [at] cs [dot] ubc [dot] ca

Office Location: CICSR 393
Phone: (604)822-0436
Fax:(604)822-5485
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The Department of Computer Science
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