Organization

• Q: What areas is LDBC active in?
• A: LDBC, the Linked Data Benchmark Council, works in the are of graph data management. LDBC defines standard benchmarks and carries out research in graph schema and query languages. LDBC’s scope includes Linked Data standards (such as RDF and SPARQL) but they also extend to property graphs (e.g., the ISO GQL language) and relational database management systems (e.g., the SQL/PGQ extension of SQL:2023).

• Q: What is LDBC’s mission?
• A: LDBC defines standard graph benchmarks to accelerate progress in graph data management similarly to what TPC has been doing in the relational data management space. LDBC is also active in promoting standard graph query languages such as GQL and SQL/PGQ. For a brief introduction, see the presentation on LDBC and the accompanying paper.

• Q: How is LDBC governed?
• A: LDBC is run by the Board of Directors. The board frequently consults with Members Policy Council, which consists of representatives from member companies and individual members.

• Q: How did the LDBC project start?
• A: The Linked Data Benchmark Council originally started in September 2012 as a research project under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with the participation of 5 academic institutions and 3 database vendors.

• Q: Where is LDBC registered?
• A: The Linked Data Benchmark Council is registered in the United Kingdom since October 2013.

• Q: What is the license of LDBC’s software projects?
• A: LDBC releases all its software under the Apache Software License v2.

• Q: Where can I download the LDBC logo?
• A: The LDBC logo is available in png, pdf, and eps formats.

• Q: How is LDBC funded?
• A: LDBC collects membership fees from its members and an auditing fee for supervising audits.

• Q: How does LDBC disseminate its results?
• A: Members of LDBC publish papers at top academic conferences (e.g. SIGMOD and VLDB) and LDBC hosts Technical User Community meetings co-located with these conferences. Additionally, LDBC has a blog and is active on social media sites (Twitter/X, LinkedIn).

Membership

• Q: What is the membership year?
• A: Based on a calendar year, this runs from 01 January through to 31 December.

• Q: Do I pay for a full year if I join part-way through?
• A: No, your membership fee will be pro-rated to the number of full months remaining in the year.

• Q: What is the joining process?
• A: Once your application form has been submitted it will be reviewed by the Board of Directors and the Members Policy Council and you will be notified of the result.

• Q: How long will the joining process take?
• A: We aim to process your application within 4 weeks of receipt of correctly completed forms.

Benchmarks

• Q: What are LDBC’s benchmarks?
• A: LDBC has four auditable benchmarks: the LDBC Financial Benchmark, the LDBC Semantic Publishing Benchmark and the Social Network Benchmark’s Interactive and Business Intelligence workloads. Other benchmarks include the LDBC Graphalytics benchmark, where submissions are run in a competition.

• Q: Where can I find the data sets for benchmarks?
• A: You can find them on the LDBC benchmark data sets site. The data sets can be downloaded free of charge.

• Q: Why should I get an audit?
• A: Getting your system audited allows you to disseminate your performance results as “LDBC Benchmark Results”, a term protected by trademark. The auditing process often benefits system from a technical perspective too: preparing for an audit often uncovers performance bottlenecks in your system. Addressing these likely also benefits customer workloads.

• Q: How can I get the system audited and how much does it cost?
• A: Please see the Auditing process for the LDBC Social Network Benchmark document, which details the process and its expected cost for the LDBC Social Network Benchmark. For other benchmarks (e.g. FinBench, SPB), the process and the costs are similar.

• Q: What are the differences between LDBC and TPC audits?
• A: The processes of LDBC and TPC audits are mostly similar, however, there are a few notables differences.
  • TPC audits can be commissioned by any organization. LDBC audits require the Test Sponsor to be a member of the LDBC.
  • A TPC audit can only target a single scale factor, while an LDBC audit may involve multiple scale factors.
  • For a TPC audit, the Test Sponsor has to produce the Full Disclosure Report of the benchmark run, which is accompanied by an attestation letter from a TPC-certified auditor. For an LDBC audit, the auditor produces the Full Disclosure Report and signs the document electronically.
  • TPC’s analytical benchmarks (e.g. TPC-H and TPC-DS) require audited systems to use SQL for implementing the queries, while LDBC does not require the use of a standard query language.

• Q: Can I use partial and/or unaudited LDBC benchmark results in my academic paper, blog post, etc.?
• A: Yes, but please study and apply the Fair use policy for LDBC benchmarks. In short, you have to state that your results are not official LDBC results.

• Q: How can I propose a new benchmark?
• A: Please consult the Process for defining new LDBC benchmarks document.

ISO GQL and SQL/PGQ

• Q: What is LDBC’s relation to the ISO?
• A: LDBC has a liaison with ISO, which allows LDBC members to access drafts of the GQL and SQL/PGQ standard documents. Several of LDBC’s members have actively contributed to the these standards.

• Q: How do I learn GQL and/or SQL/PGQ?
• A: Gábor Szárnyas maintains a list of pointers for GQL and SQL/PGQ with links to learning materials.

• Q: How do I implement GQL?
• A: LDBC created open-source GQL tools, including an ANTLR grammar and an editor.