A high performance, ad-hoc, fuzzy query processing system for relational databases

Database queries involving imprecise or fuzzy predicates are currently an evolving area of academic and industrial research. Such queries place severe stress on the indexing and I/O subsystems of conventional database environments since they involve the search of large numbers of records. The Datacycle architecture and research prototype is a database environment that uses filtering technology to perform an efficient, exhaustive search of an entire database. It has recently been modified to include fuzzy predicates in its query processing. The approach obviates the need for complex index structures, provides unlimited query throughput, permits the use of ad-hoc fuzzy membership functions, and provides a 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.