A Time-Identified R-Tree: A Workload-Controllable Dynamic Spatio-Temporal Index Scheme for Streaming Processing

Abstract

Many kinds of spatio-temporal data in our daily lives, such as the trajectory data of moving objects, stream natively. Streaming systems exhibit significant advantages in processing streaming data due to their distributed architecture, high throughput, and real-time performance. The use of streaming processing techniques for spatio-temporal data applications is a promising research direction. However, due to the strong dynamic nature of data in streaming processing systems, traditional spatio-temporal indexing techniques based on relatively static data cannot be used directly in stream-processing environments. It is necessary to study and design new spatio-temporal indexing strategies. Hence, we propose a workload-controllable dynamic spatio-temporal index based on the R-tree. In order to restrict memory usage, we formulate an INSERT and batch-REMOVE (I&BR) method and append a collection mechanism to the traditional R-tree. To improve the updating performance, we propose a time-identified R-tree (TIR). Moreover, we propose a distributed system prototype called a time-identified R-tree farm (TIRF). Experiments show that the TIR could work in a scenario with a controllable usage of memory and a stable response time. The throughput of the TIRF could reach 1 million points per second. The performance of a range search in the TIRF is many times better than in PostgreSQL, which is a widely used database system for spatio-temporal applications.