Query Performance of the IFC Model Server Using an Object-Relational Database Approach and a Traditional Relational Database Approach

Most previous industry foundation classes (IFCs) servers were developed based on relational databases (RDBs), and many studies reported performance problems. This study developed the object-relational IFC (OR-IFC) server using the object-relational database (ORDB) approach to improve query performance by simplifying the mapping process of the inheritance structure and the aggregation concepts. In addition to the OR-IFC server, a RDB-based IFC server was also developed using mapping rules on the same database-management system as that on which the OR-IFC server was implemented to compare the performance of the ORDB- and RDB-based systems. The performance of the OR-IFC server and the RDB-based IFC server was evaluated using the Benchmark of Universal or Complex Kwery Ynterfaces benchmark method, and two test-case models with different sizes were used. The benchmark results clearly showed the query-performance improvement of the suggested OR approach. The OR-IFC server far outperformed the RDB-based server in every query related to object-oriented features such as inheritance, collection-type data, and referencing.