S-tree

The signature approach is an access method for partial-match retrieval which meets many requirements of an office environment. Signatures are hash coded binary words derived from objects stored in the data base. They serve as a filter for retrieval in order to discard a large number of nonqualifying objects. In an indexed signature method the signatures of objects stored on a single page are used to form a signature for that page. In this paper we describe a new technique of indexed signatures which combines the dynamic balancing of B-trees with the signature approach. The main problem of appropriate splitting is solved in a heuristic way. Operations are described and a simple performance analysis is given. The analysis and some experimental results indicate a considerable performance gain. Moreover, the new S-tree approach supports a clustering on a signature basis. Further remarks on adaptability complete this work.