Efficient query processing is one of the basic needs for data mining algori
thms. Clustering algorithms, association rule mining algorithms and OLAP to
ols all rely on efficient query processors being able to deal with high-dim
ensional data. Inside such a query processor, multidimensional index struct
ures are used as a basic technique. As the implementation of such an index
structure is a difficult and time-consuming task, we propose a new approach
to implement an index structure on top of a commercial relational database
system. In particular, we map the index structure to a relational database
design and simulate the behavior of the index structure using triggers and
stored procedures. This can be easily done for a very large class of multi
dimensional index structures. To demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency
, we implemented an X-tree on top of Oracle8. We ran several experiments on
large databases and recorded a performance improvement up to a factor of 1
1.5 compared to a sequential scan of the database.