An Adaptive Labeling Method for Dynamic XML Documents

There is a growing need to support variant operations on XML documents such as insertions, merging, and concurrent access. The Dewey based labeling method, which is used in some XML data Management Systems, has been considered to be the most suitable technique to support dynamic XML documents. In this paper, we present a new adaptable and space-efficient labeling technique, called PoD (Prefixing on Demand), based on Dewey identifiers. Our technique minimizes the total label size that is generated for general XML documents while maintaining the document order. Furthermore, it supports insertion without relabeling any existing node by providing a parameterized insertion mechanism. Our technique also eliminates the need for the complex variable-length prefix-free algorithm that is used in many other proposed solutions. We also report on experimental label length evaluation between our approach and a recent Dewey based approach, namely ORDPATH, using well-known XML benchmarks.