Extending SPARQL with Temporal Logic

Radu Mateescu, Sébastien Meriot, and Sylvain Rampacek

INRIA Research Report RR-7056, October 2009

Abstract:

The data integration and sharing activities carried on in the framework of the Semantic Web lead to large knowledge bases that must be queried, analyzed, and exploited efficiently. Many of the knowledge representation languages of the Semantic Web, starting with RDF, are based on directed, labeled graphs, which can be also manipulated using graph algorithms and tools coming from other domains. In this paper, we propose an analysis approach of RDF graphs by reusing the verification technology developed for concurrent systems. To this purpose, we define a translation from the SPARQL query language into XTL, a general-purpose graph manipulation language implemented in the CADP verification toolbox for asynchronous concurrent systems. This translation makes it possible to extend the expressive power of SPARQL naturally by adding XTL temporal logic formulas characterizing sequences, trees, or general subgraphs of the RDF graph. Our approach exhibits a performance comparable with that of dedicated SPARQL query evaluation engines, as illustrated by experiments on large RDF graphs.

16 pages

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