Efficient query processing with structural join indexing in an object relational data warehousing environment

In an Object Relational Data Warehousing (ORDW) environment, the semantics of data and queries can be explicitly captured, represented, and utilized based on is-a and class composition hierarchies, thereby resulting in more efficient OLAP query processing. In this chapter, we show the efficacy in building semantic-rich hybrid data indexes incorporating Structural Join Index Hierarchy (SJIH) on the ORDW views. Given a set of queries, we use a hill-climbing heuristic algorithm to select (near) optimal SJIHs, thereby embedding query semantics into the indexing framework. Finally, by a cost model, we analyze the effectiveness of our approach vis-a-vis the pointer chasing approach.