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A new multiattribute index structure called the hB-tree is introduced. It is derived from the K-D-B-tree of Robinson 15 but has additional desirable properties. The hB-tree internode search and growth processes are precisely analogous to the corresponding processes in B-trees 1. The intranode processes are unique. A k-d tree is used as the structure within nodes for very efficient searching. Node splitting requires that this k-d tree be split. This produces nodes which no longer represent brick-like regions in k-space, but that can be characterized as holey bricks, bricks in which subregions have been extracted. We present results that guarantee hB-tree users decent storage utilization, reasonable size index terms, and good search and insert performance. These results guarantee that the hB-tree copes well with arbitrary distributions of keys.
Lomet et al. (1990) studied this question.