Structure-based Ontology Partitioning
This page illustrates a method for structure-based ontology
partitioning. By exploiting the dependency between classes, the
method splits up large ontologies into smaller modules. The
complete method is described in an
article.
Tools
- For calculating about the structural properties of the
ontology and manupulating the modules, we use the graph analysis
tool Pajek. If
you want to play with the graphs yourself, you have to download
and install this tool.
- We have implemented a tool for supporting partioning of ontologies in OWL or KIF format: Pato (Partitioning Tool for Ontologies; 2.8 MB). It performs all the necessary steps: creating the dependency graph, determining the modules, and improving the partitioning by assigning leftover nodes to the already found modules. It also implements functionality for comparing two partitions of the same graph that can be used to compare the output of a partitioning process to a given partitioning. The tool is a Java application that performs the partitioning interactively through a graphical user interface. It requires Java 1.5 to run or compile. The sources (2.8 MB) are also available if you want to compile Pato yourself.
Ontologies
We have experimented with several ontologies. For each of the
ontologies, we link the original OWL file, the graph file, the
individual modules, the partitioned graph, and a high-level
overview of the resulting modules.
March 2005.
For more information, contact Heiner Stuckenschmidt or Michel Klein.