Multilevel Hypergraphs: A Conceptual Approach for Complex System Database Modelling

José Ribas, Orlando Belo

2025

Abstract

Graphs are very specialized structures for modelling and representing data objects and their relationships in real-world applications. The number and diversity of graph-based applications existing today are clear testimonies of the importance and relevance of the application of graphs in solving real-world problems. However, more conventional graph structures have difficulty keeping up with the evolving complexity of problems, particularly when they involve n-ary relationships between data objects. This can be overcome using hypergraphs, which allow for representing complex relationships between finite sets of data objects. However, their implementation still has some difficulties, such as the establishment of efficient algebras and computing mechanisms to deal with relational content between entities of a dataset. In this paper, we present an extension to conventional hypergraph-based models for modelling real world problems, proposing a new functional abstraction based on a graph structure with several levels of abstraction. Relationships between data objects are established at each level in a traditional way, while relationships between levels are defined by “levelled” virtual data objects, allowing for the establishment of inheritance relationships between other data objects of sequential levels, through a logical governance structure defining the relational flow between the various levels of the established model. We named this structure as multilevel hypergraph.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Ribas J. and Belo O. (2025). Multilevel Hypergraphs: A Conceptual Approach for Complex System Database Modelling. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS; ISBN 978-989-758-749-8, SciTePress, pages 87-98. DOI: 10.5220/0013356900003929

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis25,
author={José Ribas and Orlando Belo},
title={Multilevel Hypergraphs: A Conceptual Approach for Complex System Database Modelling},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS},
year={2025},
pages={87-98},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013356900003929},
isbn={978-989-758-749-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: ICEIS
TI - Multilevel Hypergraphs: A Conceptual Approach for Complex System Database Modelling
SN - 978-989-758-749-8
AU - Ribas J.
AU - Belo O.
PY - 2025
SP - 87
EP - 98
DO - 10.5220/0013356900003929
PB - SciTePress