An Inexact Matching Method Based on Ontology and Semantic Distance for Resource Discovery and Interaction

To overcome shortcomings of Exact Matching Method (EMM) and Substitute Description Method (SDM), an Inexact Matching Method Based on Ontology and Semantic Distance (OSDIMM) is introduced. This method, firstly, describes resources information with Ontology languages to get Resource Ontology Description (RODs); then, infers Concept Hierarchy Trees and Property Hierarchy Trees from RODs; lastly, computes semantic distance between a required resource and each of existing resources based on Hierarchy Trees, and selects resources by semantic distances and thresholds. The results of experiments indicate: firstly, OSDIMM is averagely 3.8889 times as large as EMM at the aspect of matching count when the threshold of holistic semantic distance is zero and inputs are same, i.e., OSDIMM can utilize fully resources discovered than EMM; then, OSDIMM can adapt more smartly than SDM to the condition of lots of resources and properties being in pervasive computing environment; at last, it can differentiate the weightiness between entities and properties, and can describe the degree of resources satisfying query with property tuple suitability degree.