Processing temporal queries in the context of object-oriented databases

This article investigates an extensible approach to processing temporal que ries in the context of object-oriented databases. Within the uniform query processing framework, a strategy of decomposition is proposed for processin g temporal queries that involve paths based on the defined temporal object data model and query algebra. Algorithms for processing the decomposed quer y components have been implemented using stream processing techniques and a re presented with cost analyses. Heuristics that optimize the temporal quer ies are also presented. Both cost analysis and simulations show that join t ime cost is linearly increased with the expansion in the number of time-epo chs and that utilising the heuristics presented in this article can lead to a significant time cost saving. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.