A high-performance, ad hoc, fuzzy query processing system

摘要

Database queries involving imprecise or fuzzy predicates are currently an evolving area of academic and industrial research (Buckles and Perty 1987; Bosc et al. 1988; Bosc and Pivert 1991; Kacprzyk et al. 1989; Prade and Testemale, 1987; Tahani, 1977; Umano, 1983; Zemankova and Kandel, 1985). Such queries place severe stress on the indexing and I/O subsystems of conventional database systems since they frequently involve the search of large numbers of records. The Datacycle (Datacycle is a trademark of Bellcore.) architecture and research prototype is a database processing system that uses filtering technology to perform an efficient, exhaustive search of an entire database. It has been modified to include fuzzy predicates in its query processing. The approach obviates the need for complex index structures, provides high-performance query throughput, permits the use of ad hoc fuzzy membership functions and provides deterministic response time largely independent of query complexity and load. This paper describes the Datacycle prototype implementation of fuzzy queries and some recent performance results.