Database Support for Probabilistic Attributes and Tuples

Abstract-- The inherent uncertainty of data present in numerous applications such as sensor databases, text annotations, and information retrieval motivate the need to handle imprecise data at the database level. Uncertainty can be at the attribute or tuple level and is present in both continuous and discrete data domains. This paper presents a model for handling arbitrary probabilistic uncertain data (both discrete and continuous) natively at the database level. Our approach leads to a natural and efficient representation for probabilistic data. We develop a model that is consistent with possible worlds semantics and closed under basic relational operators. This is the first model that accurately and efficiently handles both continuous and discrete uncertainty. The model is implemented in a real database system (PostgreSQL) and the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach is validated experimentally.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ICDE
• Authors: Sarvjeet Singh, Chris Mayfield, Rahul Shah, Sunil Prabhakar, Susanne E. Hambrusch, Jennifer Neville, Reynold Cheng
• Keywords: Database, Discrete Data Domains, Discrete Uncertainty, ICDE 2008, Probabilistic Uncertain Data