We propose an efficient and scalable architecture for processing generalized
graph-pattern queries as they are specified by the current W3C recommendation
of the SPARQL 1.1 "Query Language" component. Specifically, the class of
queries we consider consists of sets of SPARQL triple patterns with labeled
property paths. From a relational perspective, this class resolves to
conjunctive queries of relational joins with additional graph-reachability
predicates. For the scalable, i.e., distributed, processing of this kind of
queries over very large RDF collections, we develop a suitable partitioning and
indexing scheme, which allows us to shard the RDF triples over an entire
cluster of compute nodes and to process an incoming SPARQL query over all of
the relevant graph partitions (and thus compute nodes) in parallel. Unlike most
prior works in this field, we specifically aim at the unified optimization and
distributed processing of queries consisting of both relational joins and
graph-reachability predicates. All communication among the compute nodes is
established via a proprietary, asynchronous communication protocol based on the
Message Passing Interface
