Meeting the challenge of various layers of Semantic Web Architecture
1
Navneet Bhardwaj, 2Sanjay Kumar Malik
1
B.Tech (IT) (8th) Sem, University School of Information
Technology, GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi
2
Lecturer, University School of Information Technology,
GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi
1
navneet.it@gmail.com, 2sdmalik@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The World Wide Web (WWW) has
dramatically changed the availability of
electronically accessible information. The web
currently contains around 3 billion static
documents, which are accessed by over 500
million users internationally. At the same time,
this enormous amount of data has made it
increasingly difficult to find, access, present and
maintain relevant information. This is because
information content is presented primarily in
natural language. Thus, a wide gap has emerged
between the information available for tools
aimed at addressing these problems and the
information maintained in human – readable
form. Tim Berners Lee has a two-part vision for
the future of the web. The first part is to make
the web a more collaborative medium. The
second part is to make the web understandable
and thus processable by machines. Semantic
web has transformed the prospects using old
web language to new web language like XML,
RDF, RDF/XML, XMLS and web techniques,
which are used in information retrieval of the
web. This paper presents a brief analysis of
semantic web technology emphasizing the
challenges of various layers of semantic web
architecture.
Keywords: Semantic Web, information overload,
ontologies, RDF, URI, XML, Logic, proof, trust.
1. INTRODUCTION
In a short span of time the WWW has
revolutionized information, which is transferred
between computer applications. That information is
not necessary for humans to explore its syntax and
make parsers for flow of information transfer when
modern technological languages like XHTML,
XML and other other related languages are used
[1]. The semantic web is an open dynamic network
of independent information providers all having
different views of the world, different levels of
knowledge and different intentions [2]. The
semantic web is not just for the World Wide Web
1
but it represents a set of technologies that will work
equally well on internal corporate intranets. The
use of semantic web technology has overcome the
limitations of current information technology
architectures. The three main problems in
discussion are:
Overload of Information [3]. It is the
type of imperfection when the information
prescribed are above the normal level i.e.
rapid rate of growth in amount of
information available.
Hardwired Systems [3]. These systems
are also called as Stovepipe systems in
which all the databases and syntaxes are
designed to work together and thus
cannot be exposed to the systems and
other organization.
Poor aggregated content. It is putting
together information from desperate
sources in a number of areas.
A common development in semantic web
language is important for semantic web
envisioned in several languages. The
semantic web architecture [16] presented
by Tim Berners Lee shows which
languages of increasing power are layered
on top of the other. Unfortunately the
relationships between the adjacent layers
are not specified, either with respect to
syntax and semantics.
2. SEMANTIC WEB
Semantic refers to “meaning”. The semantic web is
an extension of the current web in which
information is given well-defined meaning, better
enabling computers and people to work in
cooperation. The Semantic Web is the abstract
representation of data on the World Wide Web,
based on the RDF standards and other standards to
be defined. It is being developed by the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C), in collaboration
with a large number of researchers and industrial
partners.
3. FOUR STAGE PROCESS OF SEMANTIC
WEB TECHNOLOGY
Briefly presenting, the semantic web technology
works as four-stage process, the process steps are
given below [3]:
3.1 Pre-XML text and databases: In this first
stage of process, the data should be accurate and
correct with respect to an application.
3.2 Single Domain of XML documents: In this
second stage the data passes the application
independence in a specified domain. In this stage
the data is intelligent enough to move between
applications in a single domain. These standards
are adopted by several health care or real estate
industries.
3.3 Mixed vocabularies of Taxonomies and
Data: In general taxonomy is the hierarchical
classification of data, in the form of tree. In the
third stage, data can be composed from multiple
domains and accurately classified in a hierarchical
taxonomy. In fact, the classification can be used for
discovery of data. Simple relationships between
categories in the taxonomy can be used to relate
and thus combine data. Thus, data is now smart
enough to be easily discovered and sensibly
combined with other data.
3.4 Ontologies and rules. The last stage explains
when new data can be inferred from existing data
by following logical rules. In essence, data is now
intelligent enough to be described with concrete
relationships and sophisticated formalisms where
logical calculations can be made on this “semantic
algebra”. This allows the combination and
recombination of data at a more atomic level and
very fine-grained analysis of data. Thus in this
stage the data doesn’t represent in the form of
small part but it resembles into large structure
containing lots of information [3].
As a consequence semantic web technology has
been widely accepted in the information
technology branch with many research project and
industrial applications arisen from it. Now, we
briefly present the several layers of semantic web
architecture.
4. SEMANTIC WEB ARCHITECTURE
Figure: Semantic web architecture
http://www.w3.org/2000/Talks/1206-xml2k-
tbl/slide10-0.html
2
Figure above shows the 9 layers architecture of
semantic web in which the lowest layer starts from
the bottom of the layer, followed by the highest
layer, which is at the topmost position. The various
layers and its challenges are described below.
4.1 UNICODE
Unicode is the basic universal number for every
character, which works in multiple platforms. It is
the basic notation, which is supported by top
multinational companies like Motorola, IBM, Intel,
etc. Unicode allows a single software, text or single
character to be transported to other parts without
corruption and re-engineering [4].
4.2 URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)
The URI is termed as Uniform Resource Identifier,
which is a basic syntax for strings that is used to
identify a resource. URI is the generic term of
addresses and names of objects or resources in the
WWW. A resource is any physical or abstract
things in which each item has an identifier. The
URI consists of two types: First is Uniform
Resource locators (URL) which identifies a
resource and how it can be accessed, and the
second part is Uniform Resource Names (URN)
that is used to create a universal and persistent
name about a resource in its namespace. This
namespace dictates the syntax of URN identifier
[3]. URN is also implemented in a specific syntax
and associated protocols. For example, the URI
syntax consists of only simple characters such as
“mailto”, “ftp” etc.
4.3 XML (Extensible Markup Language)
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a
W3C-recommended general-purpose markup
language that supports a wide variety of
applications. XML languages can be designed by
anyone and may be processed by conforming
software. XML is also designed to be reasonably
human-legible, and to this end, terseness was not
considered essential in its structure. XML is
evolved from simplified subset of Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Its main
task is to facilitate the sharing of data across
different information systems, particularly systems
connected via the Internet. XML is the simplest
way to send the document across the web to its
specific format. It allows users to edit or modify it
and again transfer it. These document formats can
include mark up also to enhance the meaning of the
document. XML is the primary and core
foundation of the semantic web will be built on the
top of XML. Scientifically, XML is built upon
Unicode characters and URI’s. The Unicode
characters allow XML to be characterized using
International characters [3].
There are 10 design goals of extensible markup
language [8]: -
1. XML should be easily and directly used from the
Internet.
2.XML should support wide variety of applications
and shall be capable in multiple platforms.
3. XML should work and cooperate with SGML.
4. XML should be easy to program and it shall be
re-programmable.
5. Optional features in XML should be minimum;
therefore it shall be ideally zero.
6. XML documents shall be human readable, and it
should be clear to understand.
7. XML documents shall take less time to prepare
it.
8. The design of XML shall be formal and concise.
9. XML documents shall be easy to create.
10. Terseness in XML shall be of minimum
importance.
4.4 XML Schema
XML Schema is a document definition language
that enables you to develop XML documents into a
specific vocabulary and a specific hierarchical
structure. The things you want to define in your
language are element types, attribute types, and the
composition of both into composite types (called
complex types). XML Schema is different to a
database schema, which defines the column names
and data types in database tables. XML Schema
has been approved by W3C consortium in the year
2001. XMLS allows the validation of instances to
ensure the accuracy of field values and document
structure at the time of creation. The accuracy of
fields is checked against the type of the field; for
example, a quantity typed as an integer or money
typed as a decimal. The structure of a document is
3
checked for things like legal element and attributes
names, correct number of children, and required
attributes. All XML documents should be checked
for validity before they are transferred to another
partner or system [3]. There are different types of
XML Schema Languages [9]:
Document Definition Markup Language
(DDML)
Document Schema Definition Languages
(DSDL)
Document Structure Description (DSD)
Document Type Definition (DTD)
Namespace Routing Language (NRL)
RELAX NG and its predecessors RELAX
and TREX
SGML
Schema for Object-Oriented XML (SOX)
Schematron
XML-Data Reduced (XDR)
XML Schema (W3C) (WXS or XSD)
4.5 XML Namespaces
An XML namespace is the W3C recommendation
for providing uniquely named elements and all of
its attributes in an XML instance. An instance of an
XML contains element or attribute names from
more than one vocabulary. If each vocabulary is
given a namespace then the uncertainity or what is
unexpected between identically named elements or
attributes can be resolved. All the elements which
are within a namespace must be in unique
component [10].
4.6 RDF and RDF Schema
The RDF and RDF Schema layer is located above
the XML layer, which provides more functions and
capabilities than in XML and XML schema.
The Resource Description Framework is an XML
based language that is used to describe resources.
Such a resource is identified via a uniform resource
locator (URL). As compared to XML documents
that attach the metadata of the document, RDF
captures the metadata of the externals of the
document such as author, creation, date, etc. [3].
RDF is the machine processable language unlike
XML which is human processable, and it is not
understandable by humans i.e. it know what the
machine is doing in the way it does. So that it can
store smart information back on the Web [6]. RDF
model is also called as triple, because it contains
three parts viz. Subject, Predicate and Object. In
Subject there is a none of phrase that is the source
of action. In Predicate, which is a part of triple edit
the subject and includes the verb phrase. And in the
object, it is a noun phrase that is the source of
action by the verb [3].
In Semantic Web applications, and in most popular
applications of RDF like RSS and FOAF (Friend of
a Friend resources which are represented by the
URI denotes the actual and accurate data on the
World Wide Web. But RDF, in general, is not
limited to the description of Internet-based
resources. In fact, the URI that names a resource
does not have to be dereference able at all. For
example, a URI that begins with "http:" and is used
as the subject of an RDF statement does not
necessarily have to represent a resource that is
accessible via HTTP [11].
RDFS or RDF Schema is an knowledge
representation language, providing basic elements
for the description of ontologies, otherwise called
RDF vocabularies, intended to structure RDF
resources. The data model of RDF schema allows
creating classes of data. A class is defined as group
of things with common characteristics. An object
in the RDF schema is the instance of the class. The
first version was released by W3C in 1998, and the
final version was released in 2004. Classes and
subclasses of RDF Schema are described below
[12]:
rdfs:class : it is used to declare the resource of the
class
rdfs:subClassOf : it is used to declare the
attributes and hierarchies of the classes.
rdfs:domain of an property declares the class of
the subject in a triple using this property as
predicate.
rdfs:range of an RDF property that declares class
or data type of the object in triple using this
property as predicate.
4.7 Ontology Vocabulary
The main layer of semantic web architecture is
Ontology vocabulary, which typically consists of
hierarchical distribution of important concepts in a
domain, along with descriptions of the properties
of each concept. Ontologies play a pivotal role in
the semantic web by providing a source of shared
and precisely defined terms that can be used in
metadata. The recognition of the key role in
ontologies are likely to play in the future of the
web that has led to extension of web mark up
languages like XML Schema, RDF and RDF
Schema. The recognition of the limitations in mark
4
up languages led to the development of new web
ontology languages such as OIL, DAML–ONT and
DAML+OIL, OWL.
OWL(Web Ontology Language): OWL is intended
to be used when the information contained in
documents needs to be processed by applications,
as opposed to situations where the content only
needs to be presented to humans. OWL can be used
to explicitly represent the meaning of terms in
vocabularies and the relationships between those
terms. This representation of terms and their
interrelationships is called ontology. OWL has
more facilities for expressing meaning and
semantics than XML, RDF, and RDF-S, and thus
OWL goes beyond these languages in its ability to
represent machine interpretable content on the
Web. OWL is a revision of the DAML+OIL web
ontology language. OWL has been designed to
meet the requirements of RDF, RDFS, XML
Schema [13].
4.8 Logic Layer
Logic layer in the semantic web is the universal
language of monotonic logic. In the logic layer of
semantic web architecture any rule can export the
code but cannot import it. Any system in the logic
layer can validate proofs [14].
This layer functions on the basic principle of first
order predicate logic [6], so the information is
displayed accurately on the web.
4.9 Proof
In this layer, the ultimate goal of semantic web is
to create a much smarter content which could be
understood by the machines. When the content is
understood by machine, some assertions may come
out of the content and new pieces of information
will be produced [15]. Unfortunately this layer has
been not investigated enough and this lack of
investigation is not yet sufficiently considered to be
a crucial problem.
4.10 Trust
This is the top most layer of the semantic web
architecture in which the trustworthiness of
information should be subjectively evaluated by
each information consumers. The trust does not
exclude information providers which have not been
rated or do not publish trust relevant information in
a specific way. The trust layer in semantic web
architecture is analyzed into four parts: The
Information integration layer handles
aggregation of information from different sources
and adds provenance metadata in the information.
The Repository Layer stores the aggregate
information. The Query and Trust evaluation
layer handles the actual trust decisions using query
specific trust policies. The Application and
explanation layer on which the retrieved
information is used which an application context
which provides functionality to browse through
explanations why data should be trusted [2].
4.11 Digital Signature
Digital signatures run horizontal to the RDF family
up through the proof layer and support the notion
of trust. Developments in the area of digital
signatures are progressing, and could eventually
help validate the integrity of metadata that an agent
will use for reasoning and task completion. The
main purpose of the digital signature is to digitally
sign the document. Also encryption methods are
used to run on digital signed documents to prevent
against unauthorized access.
5. CONCLUSION
[7] http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xml-961114.html
[8] http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#sec-origin-goals
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_schema
[10] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/
[11] Resource Description Framework
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description
_Framework
[12] http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
[13] http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/
[14] http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/04-
sweb/slide20-0.html
[15] A Min Tjoa, Amin, Ferial, Roland Wagner
“Semantic web Challenges and new requirements”,
16th International Workshop on database and expert
systems (DEXA ’05), 1529-4188/05

A lot of work is being done in all layers but not [16] http://www.w3.org/2000/Talks/1206-xml2k-
being much done in Proof and Logic. tbl/slide10-0.html
This paper gives an idea of semantic web and an
analysis of various layers of semantic web
architecture which may assist to meet the various
challenges of layers of semantic web architecture.

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