i HDT++ : improving HDT for SPARQL triple pattern resolution

Abstract

RDF self-indexes compress the RDF collection and provide efficient access to the data without a previous decompression (via the so-called SPARQL triple patterns). HDT is one of the reference solutions in this scenario, with several applications to lower the barrier of both publication and consumption of Big Semantic Data. However, the simple design of HDT takes a compromise position between compression effectiveness and retrieval speed. In particular, it supports scan and subject-based queries, but it requires additional indexes to resolve predicate and object-based SPARQL triple patterns. A recent variant, HDT++, improves HDT compression ratios, but it does not retain the original HDT retrieval capabilities. In this article, we extend HDT++ with additional indexes to support full SPARQL triple pattern resolution with a lower memory footprint than the original indexed HDT (called HDT-FoQ). Our evaluation shows that the resultant structure, iHDT++, requires 70 - 85% of the original HDT-FoQ space (and up to 48 - 72% for an HDT Community variant). In addition, iHDT++ shows significant performance improvements (up to one level of magnitude) for most triple pattern queries, being competitive with state-of-the-art RDF self-indexes.