A Robust Logical and Computational Characterisation of Peer-to-Peer Database Systems

Abstract

In this paper we give a robust logical and computational characterisation of peer-to-peer database systems. We first define a precise model-theoretic semantics of a peer-to-peer system, which allows for local inconsistency handling. We then characterise the general computational properties for the problem of answering queries to such a peer-to-peer system. Finally, we devise tight complexity bounds and distributed procedures for the problem of answering queries in few relevant special case