Signature files and signature trees

Abstract

The signature file method is a popular indexing technique used in information retrieval and databases. It excels in efficient index maintenance and lower space overhead. However, it suffers from inefficiency in query processing due to the fact that for each query processed the entire signature file needs to be scanned. In this paper, we introduce a tree structure, called a signature tree, established over a signature file, which can be used to expedite the signature file scanning by one order of magnitude or more.