A top-down approach to answering queries using views

The problem of answering queries using views is concerned with finding answers to a query using only answers to a set of views. In the context of data integration with LAV approach, this problem translates to finding maximally contained rewriting for a query using a set of views. When both query and views are in conjunctive form, rewritings generated by existing bottom-up algorithms in this context are generally expensive to evaluate. As a result, they often require costly post-processing to improve efficiency of computing the answer tuples. In this dissertation, we propose a top-down approach to the rewriting problem of conjunctive queries. We first present a graph-based analysis of the problem and identify conditions that must be satisfied to ensure maximal containment of rewriting. We then present TreeWise, a novel algorithm that uses our top-down approach to efficiently generate maximally contained rewritings that are generally less expensive to evaluate. Our experiments confirm that TreeWise generally produces better quality rewritings, with a performance comparable to the most efficient of previously proposed algorithm

View Selection in Semantic Web Databases

We consider the setting of a Semantic Web database, containing both explicit data encoded in RDF triples, and implicit data, implied by the RDF semantics. Based on a query workload, we address the problem of selecting a set of views to be materialized in the database, minimizing a combination of query processing, view storage, and view maintenance costs. Starting from an existing relational view selection method, we devise new algorithms for recommending view sets, and show that they scale significantly beyond the existing relational ones when adapted to the RDF context. To account for implicit triples in query answers, we propose a novel RDF query reformulation algorithm and an innovative way of incorporating it into view selection in order to avoid a combinatorial explosion in the complexity of the selection process. The interest of our techniques is demonstrated through a set of experiments.Comment: VLDB201

Semantic Query Reformulation in Social PDMS

We consider social peer-to-peer data management systems (PDMS), where each peer maintains both semantic mappings between its schema and some acquaintances, and social links with peer friends. In this context, reformulating a query from a peer's schema into other peer's schemas is a hard problem, as it may generate as many rewritings as the set of mappings from that peer to the outside and transitively on, by eventually traversing the entire network. However, not all the obtained rewritings are relevant to a given query. In this paper, we address this problem by inspecting semantic mappings and social links to find only relevant rewritings. We propose a new notion of 'relevance' of a query with respect to a mapping, and, based on this notion, a new semantic query reformulation approach for social PDMS, which achieves great accuracy and flexibility. To find rapidly the most interesting mappings, we combine several techniques: (i) social links are expressed as FOAF (Friend of a Friend) links to characterize peer's friendship and compact mapping summaries are used to obtain mapping descriptions; (ii) local semantic views are special views that contain information about external mappings; and (iii) gossiping techniques improve the search of relevant mappings. Our experimental evaluation, based on a prototype on top of PeerSim and a simulated network demonstrate that our solution yields greater recall, compared to traditional query translation approaches proposed in the literature.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, query rewriting in PDM

Rewriting Complex Queries from Cloud to Fog under Capability Constraints to Protect the Users' Privacy

In this paper we show how existing query rewriting and query containment techniques can be used to achieve an efficient and privacy-aware processing of queries. To achieve this, the whole network structure, from data producing sensors up to cloud computers, is utilized to create a database machine consisting of billions of devices from the Internet of Things. Based on previous research in the field of database theory, especially query rewriting, we present a concept to split a query into fragment and remainder queries. Fragment queries can operate on resource limited devices to filter and preaggregate data. Remainder queries take these data and execute the last, complex part of the original queries on more powerful devices. As a result, less data is processed and forwarded in the network and the privacy principle of data minimization is accomplished

AMaχoS—Abstract Machine for Xcerpt

Web query languages promise convenient and efficient access to Web data such as XML, RDF, or Topic Maps. Xcerpt is one such Web query language with strong emphasis on novel high-level constructs for effective and convenient query authoring, particularly tailored to versatile access to data in different Web formats such as XML or RDF. However, so far it lacks an efficient implementation to supplement the convenient language features. AMaχoS is an abstract machine implementation for Xcerpt that aims at efficiency and ease of deployment. It strictly separates compilation and execution of queries: Queries are compiled once to abstract machine code that consists in (1) a code segment with instructions for evaluating each rule and (2) a hint segment that provides the abstract machine with optimization hints derived by the query compilation. This article summarizes the motivation and principles behind AMaχoS and discusses how its current architecture realizes these principles

Query reformulation with constraints

Let Σ1, Σ2 be two schemas, which may overlap, C be a set of constraints on the joint schema Σ1 ∪ Σ2, and q1 be a Σ1-query. An (equivalent) reformulation of q1 in the presence of C is a Σ2-query, q2, such that q2 gives the same answers as q1 on any Σ1 ∪ Σ2-database instance that satisfies C. In general, there may exist multiple such reformulations and choosing among them may require, for example, a cost model

Query Rewriting by Contract under Privacy Constraints

In this paper we show how Query Rewriting rules and Containment checks of aggregate queries can be combined with Contract-based programming techniques. Based on the combination of both worlds, we are able to find new Query Rewriting rules for queries containing aggregate constraints. These rules can either be used to improve the overall system performance or, in our use case, to implement a privacy-aware way to process queries. By integrating them in our PArADISE framework, we can now process and rewrite all types of OLAP queries, including complex aggregate functions and group-by extensions. In our framework, we use the whole network structure, from data producing sensors up to cloud computers, to automatically deploy an edge computing subnetwork. On each edge node, so-called fragment queries of a genuine query are executed to filter and to aggregate data on resource restricted sensor nodes. As a result of integrating Contract-based programming approaches, we are now able to not only process less data but also to produce less data in the result. Thus, the privacy principle of data minimization is accomplished