Description
Data analysis systems require range-aggregate query answering of large multidimensional datasets. We provide the necessary framework to build a retrieval system capable of providing fast answers with progressively increasing accuracy in support of range-aggregate queries. In addition, with error forecasting, we provide estimations on the accuracy of the generated approximate results. Our framework utilizes the wavelet transformation of query and data hypercubes. While prior work focused on the ordering of either the query or the data coefficients, we propose a class of hybrid ordering techniques that exploits both query and data wavelets in answering queries progressively. This work effectively subsumes and extends most of the current work where wavelets are used as a tool for approximate or progressive query evaluation. The results of our experimental studies show that independent of the characteristics of the dataset, the data coefficient ordering, contrary to the common belief, is the inferior approach. Hybrid ordering, on the other hand, performs best for scientific datasets that are inter-correlated. For an entirely random dataset with no inter-correlation, query ordering is the superior approach.