Multidimensional Binary Search Trees in Database Applications

The multidimensional binary search tree (abbreviated k-d tree) is a data structure for storing multikey records. This structure has been used to solve a number of "geometric" problems in statistics and data analysis. The purposes of this paper are to cast k-d trees in a database framework, to collect the results on k-d trees that have appeared since the structure was introduced, and to show how the basic data structure can be modified to facilitate implementation in large (and very large) databases.