Range Queries over a Compact Representation of Minimum Bounding Rectangles

In this paper we present a compact structure to index semistatic collections of MBRs that solves range queries while keeping a good trade-off between the space needed to store the index and its search efficiency. This is very relevant considering the current sizes and gaps in the memory hierarchy. Our index is based on the wavelet tree, a structure used to represent sequences, permutations, and other discrete functions in stringology. The comparison with the R*-tree and the STR R-tree (the most relevant dynamic and static versions of the R-tree) shows that our proposal needs less space to store the index while keeping competitive search performance, especially when the queries are not too selective.