Abstract

Most database applications manage time-referenced, or temporal, data. Temporal data management is difficult when using conventional database technology, and many contributions have been made for how to better model, store, and query temporal data. Temporal aggregation illustrates well the problems associated with the management of temporal data. Indeed, temporal aggregation is complex and among the most difficult, and thus interesting, temporal functionality to support. This paper presents a general framework for temporal aggregation that accommodates existing kinds of aggregation, and it identifies open challenges within temporal aggregation.