Efficient ontology processing using hierarchical data models representation

In this paper we propose a hierarchical data model for representing ontologies. The model is suited for efficiently handling hierarchical relationships, frequently found in the ontology structure. Our hierarchical data model defines a generic representation using hierarchies that can be persisted in a general purpose records structure. We introduce two algorithms that efficiently represent the hierarchical relationships found in ontologies into the hierarchical data model, by minimizing the number of database operations. Finally, we analyze the performance of hierarchical queries performed on a test ontology persisted using our hierarchical data model.