Jonathan Lawder
Ph.D. Research
The Application of Space-filling Curves to the Storage and Retrieval of Multi-dimensional Data
Degree awarded by the University of London in 2000
Research carried out at Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College
With a particular emphasis on the application of the Hilbert Curve, this research relates to methods of querying multi-dimensional
data that is indexed by mapping it to a space-filling curve.
In a nutshell, the mapping technique enables the effective provision of all possible secondary indexes over multidimensional data
using a *single* index, such as a simple B-Tree. This provides flexible data access while saving the overhead of maintaining multiple indexes.
The querying method itself allows the mapping technique to be put to practical use - for range as well as point queries.