Set-Difference Range Queries

We introduce the problem of performing set-difference range queries, where answers to queries are set-theoretic symmetric differences between sets of items in two geometric ranges. We describe a general framework for answering such queries based on a novel use of data-streaming sketches we call signed symmetric-difference sketches. We show that such sketches can be realized using invertible Bloom filters (IBFs), which can be composed, differenced, and searched so as to solve set-difference range queries in a wide range of scenarios.