Publication Data
Graph cube: on warehousing and OLAP multidimensional networks
Abstract: We consider extending decision support facilities toward
large sophisticated networks, upon which multidimensional attributes are associated
with network entities, thereby forming the so-called multidimensional networks. Data
warehouses and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) technology have proven to be
effective tools for decision support on relational data. However, they are not well
equipped to handle the new yet important multidimensional networks. In this paper, we
introduce Graph Cube, a new data warehousing model that supports OLAP queries
effectively on large multidimensional networks. By taking account of both attribute
aggregation and structure summarization of the networks, Graph Cube goes beyond the
traditional data cube model involved solely with numeric value based group-by’s, thus
resulting in a more insightful and structure-enriched aggregate network within every
possible multidimensional space. Besides traditional cuboid queries, a new class of
OLAP queries, crossboid, is introduced that is uniquely useful in multidimensional
networks and has not been studied before. We implement Graph Cube by combining special
characteristics of multidimensional networks with the existing well-studied data cube
techniques. We perform extensive experimental studies on a series of real world data
sets and Graph Cube is shown to be a powerful and efficient tool for decision support
on large multidimensional networks.
