Context-Aware Query Processing in Ad-Hoc Environments of Peers

Abstract

In this article, we deal with context-aware query processing in ad-hoc peer-to-peer networks. Each peer in such an environment has a database over which users execute queries. This database involves (a) relations which are locally stored and (b) virtual relations, all the tuples of which are collected from peers that are present in the network at the time when a query is posed. The objective of our work is to perform query processing in such an environment and, to this end, we start with a formal definition of the system model. Next, we formally define SQLP, an extension of SQL that covers the termination of queries, the failure of individual peers and the semantic characteristics of the peers of such a network. Moreover, we present a query execution algorithm as well as the formal definition of all the operators that take place in a query execution plan.