A notation for discrimination network analysis

Because of their ability to store, access, and process large amounts of data, Database Management Systems and Rule-based Systems are used in many information systems as information processing units. A basic function of a Rule-based System and a function of many Database Management Systems is to match conditions on the available data. To improve performance intermediate results are stored in Discrimination Networks. The resulting memory consumption and runtime cost depend on the structure of the Discrimination Network. A lot of research has been done in the area of optimising Discrimination Networks. In this paper we focus on re-using of network parts by multiple rule conditions. We introduce the block notation as a first step to enhance optimisation. The block notation allows for the identification of meaningful sharing constructs.