International Business Machines Corporation

Edward Leo Wimmers

Mohamed Zait

Giuseppe Psaila

Rakesh Agrawal

Hovey Raymond Strong

Ronald Fagin

Andreas Geppert

Rakesh Agrawai

A system and method for constraint management in a database middleware system that responds to queries for data from requesting user applications by accessing diverse data sources. A constraint manager receives notifications of updates from sources that support notification, and the constraint manager monitors other sources that support monitoring, to undertake constraint management. Repairs of inconsistencies are made when possible, and when repairs are not possible, the inconsistencies are nulled out if the inconsistencies are totally useless to the requesting user application. In contrast, if the requesting application has some use for otherwise inconsistent, unrepairable data, the data is sent to the application along with an alert of the inconsistencies. Also, for those sources that do not support either notification or monitoring, the constraint manager executes just-in-time checking, i.e., when a query is received, the constraint manager checks data that is to be accessed pursuant to the query, and if inconsistencies are found, the inconsistencies are virtually repaired, i.e., data received from the source is repaired at the constraint manager. The query is then executed against the repaired data.

System and method for consistency constraint management in database middleware

A data processing system provides the correct weighted combinational function for any unweighted combinational rules applied to a database. The system receives weights to be applied to data attributes, checks for ordering conditions and if necessary re-orders the weights, and produces the correct, unique combinational function that incorporates the user weights into the base combinational rules that otherwise would be applied to retrieve desired data from the database. Thus, the invention provides unprecedented flexibility in determining the proper computation of combined scoring functions.

Method and apparatus for incorporating weights into data combinational

A system and method including a computer shape definition language are disclosed for defining shapes and mining time sequences that resemble the shapes. The system and method include provisions for establishing a user-defined alphabet that in turn establishes a set of elemental shapes. The system also includes simple yet powerful operators for combining the elemental shapes to define a desired time sequence shape. Moreover, intervals of actual time sequences are mapped into corresponding transition sequences using the alphabet, and the transition sequences are stored in a hierarchical index structure for easily accessing the transition sequences. The index structure is entered with the desired time sequence shape, and the index structure is traversed to identify maximal actual transition sequences which conform to the desired time sequence shape, within user-definable blurry criteria.

System and method for defining shapes with which to mine time sequences

A method is provided for synchronizing local times, maintained at nodes within a network architecture, with a reference time. A node according to the invention can synchronize its local time with the reference time source either actively or in a passive, or eavesdropping, manner. Which of the two manners is to be used preferably depends on whether the node's error exceeds a threshold, and whether the node receives an unsolicited burst of synchronization messages. The active manner is preferably a handshaking scheme, such as probabilistic clock synchronization, in which synchronization is initiated by a request from a node requiring synchronization, and a handshaking exchange of messages between the node and the reference time source establishes a temporal relationship, from which the node produces a synchronized time and a maximum error. The passive manner is preferably a manner in which the reference time source broadcasts a burst of reference-time-stamped synchronization messages, and the node eavesdrops on the messages. The receiving node establishes temporal relationships between certain ones of the local and reference time stamps. Using the temporal relationships, the receiving node updates its local time and its maximum error.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Edward Leo Wimmers