The Space-Time Complexity of Sum-Product Queries

Abstract: While extensive research on query evaluation has achieved consistent improvements in the time complexity of algorithms, the space complexity of query evaluation has been largely ignored. This is a particular challenge in settings with strict pre-defined space constraints. In this paper, we examine the combined space-time complexity of conjunctive queries (CQs) and, more generally, of sum-product queries (SPQs). We propose several classes of space-efficient algorithms for evaluating SPQs, and we show that the optimal time complexity is almost always achievable with asymptotically lower space complexity than traditional approaches.