Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

System Π: A Native RDF Repository Based on the Hypergraph Representation for RDF Data Model

  • Regular Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Computer Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

RDF is the data interchange layer for the Semantic Web. In order to manage the increasing amount of RDF data, an RDF repository should provide not only the necessary scalability and efficiency, but also sufficient inference capabilities. Though existing RDF repositories have made progress towards these goals, there is still ample space for improving the overall performance. In this paper, we propose a native RDF repository, System Π, to pursue a better tradeoff among system scalability, query efficiency, and inference capabilities. System Π takes a hypergraph representation for RDF as the data model for its persistent storage, which effectively avoids the costs of data model transformation when accessing RDF data. Based on this native storage scheme, a set of efficient semantic query processing techniques are designed. First, several indices are built to accelerate RDF data access including a value index, a labeling scheme for transitive closure computation, and three triple indices. Second, we propose a hybrid inference strategy under the pD * semantics to support inference for OWL-Lite with a relatively low computational complexity. Finally, we extend the SPARQL algebra to explicitly express inference semantics in logical query plan by defining some new algebra operators. In addition, MD5 hash value of URI and schema level cache are introduced as practical implementation techniques. The results of performance evaluation on the LUBM benchmark and a real data set show that System Π has a better combined metric value than other comparable systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Resource description framework (RDF): Concepts and abstract syntax. W3C, 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/.

  2. W3C Semantic Web Activity. W3C, 2007, http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/.

  3. Tim Berners-Lee. Artificial intelligence and the semantic Web. AAAI Keynote, Boston, USA, July 2006, http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/0718-aaai-tbl/Overview.html.

  4. Guo Y, Pan Z, Heflin J. LUBM: A benchmark for OWL knowledge base systems. Journal of Web Semantics, 2005, 3(2/3): 158–182.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Jeen Broekstra, Arjohn Kampman, Frank van Harmelen. Sesame: A generic architecture for storing and querying RDF and RDF schema. In Proc. the First International Semantic Web Conference on the Semantic Web (ISWC'02), London, UK, Springer-Verlag, June 10{12, 2002, pp.54–68.

  6. Carroll J J, Dickinson I, Dollin C, Reynolds D, Seaborne A, Wilkinson K. Jena: Implementing the semantic Web recommendations. In Proc. the 13th International World Wide Web Conference on Alternate Track Papers & Posters (WWW Alt.'04), New York, USA, ACM Press, 2004, pp.74–83.

  7. Pan Z X, Heflin J. DLDB: Extending relational databases to support semantic Web queries. Technical Report LUCSE-04-006, Dept. Computer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, 2004.

  8. Alexaki S, Christophides V, Karvounarakis G, Plexousakis D, Tolle D. The ICS-FORTH RDFSuite: Managing voluminous RDF description bases. In Proc. the 2nd International Work-shop on the Semantic Web, Hong Kong, China, May 1, 2001, pp.1–13.

  9. Ma L, Su Z, Pan Y, Zhang L, Liu T. RStar: An RDF storage and query system for enterprise resource management. In Proc. the Thirteenth ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM'04), Washington DC, USA, 2004, pp.484–491.

  10. Wood D, Gearon P, Adams T. Kowari: A platform for semantic Web storage and analysis. In Proc. XTech, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 24–27, 2005.

  11. Chen Y, Ou J, Jiang Y, Meng X. HStar — A semantic repository for large scale OWL documents. In Proc. ASWC, Beijing, China, September 3–7, 2006, pp.415–428.

  12. Hayes J. A graph model for RDF [Master's Thesis]. Department of Computer Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, August 2004.

  13. Amadís Antonio Martínez-Morales, Maria-Esther Vidal. A directed hypergraph formal model for RDF. In Joint ODBIS & SWDB Workshop on Semantic Web, Ontologies, Databases and Information Systems (SWDB-ODBIS07), Poster, Vienna, Austria, September 24, 2007.

  14. Aleman-Meza B, Hakimpour F, Arpinar I B, Sheth A P. SwetoDblp ontology of computer science publications. Journal of Web Semantics, 2007, 5(3): 151–155.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hillyer M. Managing hierarchical data in MySQL. 2006, http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/hierarchical-data.html.

  16. RDF vocabulary description language 1.0: RDF schema. W3C, 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/.

  17. OWL: Web ontology language semantics and abstract syntax.W3C, 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-absyn/.

  18. SPARQL query language for RDF. W3C, 2007, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/.

  19. Christophides V, Karvounarakis G, Plexousakis D, Scholl M, Tourtounis S. Optimizing taxonomic semantic Web queries using labeling schemes. Journal of Web Semantics, 2004, 1(2): pp.207–228.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wu G, Zhang K, Liu C, Li J. Adapting prime number labeling scheme for directed acyclic graphs. In Proc. DASFAA, Singapore, April 12{15, 2006, pp.787–796.

  21. Wu G. Research on key technologies of RDF graph data management [Ph.D. Dissertation]. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University January 2008.

  22. RDF semantics. W3C, 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfmt/.

  23. Herman J ter Horst. Completeness, decidability and complexity of entailment for RDF schema and a semantic extension involving the OWL vocabulary. Journal of Web Semantics, 2005, 3(2/3): 79–115.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  24. Horrocks I, Patel-Schneider P F. Reducing OWL entailment to description logic satisfiability. Journal of Web Semantics, 2004, 1: 345–357.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Muñoz S, Pérez J, Gutierrez C. Minimal deductive systems for RDF. In Proc. the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC2007), Innsbruck, Austria, June 3–7, 2007.

  26. Liu B, Hu B. An evaluation of RDF storage systems for large data applications. In Proc. the 1st International Conference on Semantics, Knowledge and Grid (SKG'05), Beijing, China, November 27–29, 2005, p.59.

  27. Baader F, Sattler U. An overview of tableau algorithms for description logics. Studia Logica, Oct. 2001, 69(1): 5–40.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  28. Horrocks I. The FaCT system. In Proc. the International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods (TABLEAUX'98), London, UK, Springer-Verlag, May 5–8, 1998, pp.307–312.

  29. Baader F, Calvanese D, McGuinness D L, Nardi D, Patel-Schneider P F (eds.). The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2003.

  30. Oren E, Guéret C, Schlobach S. Anytime query answering in RDF through evolutionary algorithms. In Proc. the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC), Karsruhe, Germany, October 26–30, 2008, pp.98–113.

  31. Seaborne A, Manjunath G. SPARQL/Update: A language for updating RDF graphs, 2008, http://jena.hpl.hp.com/~afs/SPARQL-Update.html.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Gang Wu

  2. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Juan-Zi Li (Member, CCF, ACM), Jian-Qiang Hu & Ke-Hong Wang (Member, CCF)

Authors
  1. Gang Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Juan-Zi Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jian-Qiang Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ke-Hong Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gang Wu.

Additional information

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 90604025 and 60773106, and the National Basic Research 973 Program of China under Grant Nos. 2003CB317007 and 2007CB310803.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

(PDF 95.3 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wu, G., Li, JZ., Hu, JQ. et al. System Π: A Native RDF Repository Based on the Hypergraph Representation for RDF Data Model. J. Comput. Sci. Technol. 24, 652–664 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11390-009-9265-9

Download citation

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11390-009-9265-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation