Stand-alone cartridge style data aggregation server and method of and system for managing multi-dimensional databases using the same

• US 20030018642A1
• Filed: 05/21/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MEC Management, LLC (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota)
• Original Assignee: MEC Management, LLC (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota)
• Inventors: Bakalash, Reuven, Shaked, Guy, Caspi, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US10/153,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018642A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Improved method of and apparatus for aggregating data elements in multidimensional databases (MDDB). In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus is realized in the form of a high-performance stand-alone (i.e. external) aggregation server which can be plugged-into conventional MOLAP systems to achieve significant improments in system performance. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, the stand-alone aggregation server contains a scalable MDDB and a high-performance aggregation engine that are integrated into the modular architecture of the aggregation server. The stand-alone aggregation server of the present invention can uniformly distribute data elements among a plurality of processors, for balanced loading and processing, and therefore is highly scalable. The stand-alone aggregation server of the present invention can be used to realize (i) an improved MDDB for supporting on-line analytical processing (OLAP) operations, (ii) an improved Internet URL Directory for supporting on-line information searching operations by Web-enabled client machines, as well as (iii) diverse types of MDDB-based systems for supporting real-time control of processes in response to complex states of information reflected in the MDDB.

Claims

1. A stand-alone data aggregation server comprising an aggregation engine that is integrated with a multidimensional database (MDDB), to provide a cartridge-style plug-in accelerator which can communicate with virtually any conventional OLAP server.

2. A stand-alone data aggregration server whose computational tasks are restricted to data aggregation, leaving all other OLAP functions to the MOLAP serverm and therefore complementing OLAP server'"'"'s functionality.

3. A stand-alone aggregation server carries out an improved method of data aggregation within the MDDB which enables the dimensions of the MDDB to be scaled up to large numbers and large atomic (i.e. base) data sets to be handled within the MDDB.

4. A stand-alone aggregration server, wherein the aggregation engine supports high-performance aggregation (i.e. data roll-up) processes to maximize query performance of large data volumes, and to reduce the time of partial aggregations that degrades the query response.

5. A stand-alone, external scalable aggregation server, wherein its integrated data aggregation (i.e. roll-up) engine speeds up the aggregation process by orders of magnitude, enabling larger database analysis by lowering the aggregation times.

6. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server for use in OLAP operations, wherein the scalability of the aggregation server enables (i) the speed of the aggregation process carried out therewithin to be substantially increased by distributing the computationally intensive tasks associated with data aggregation among multiple processors, and (ii) the large data sets contained within the MDDB of the aggregation server to be subdivided among multiple processors thus allowing the size of atomic (i.e. basic) data sets within the MDDB to be substantially increased.

7. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server, which provides for uniform load balancing among processors for high efficiency and best performance, and linear scalability for extending the limits by adding processors.

8. A stand-alone, external scalable aggregation server, which is suitable for MOLAP as well as for ROLAP system architectures.

9. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server, wherein an MDDB and aggregation engine are integrated and the aggregation engine carries out a high-performance aggregation algorithm and novel storing and searching methods within the MDDB.

10. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server which can be supported on single-processor (i.e. sequential or serial) computing platforms, as well as on multiprocessor (i.e. parallel) computing platforms.

11. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server which can be used as a complementary aggregation plug-in to existing MOLAP and ROLAP databases.

12. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server which carries out an novel rollup (i.e. down-up) and spread down (i.e. top-down) aggregation algorithms.

13. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server which includes an integrated MDDB and aggregation engine which carries out full pre-aggregation and/or “

on-the-fly”

aggregation processes within the MDDB.

14. A stand-alone scalable aggregation server which is capable of supporting MDDB having a multi-hierarchy dimensionality.

15. A method of aggregating multidimensional data of atomic data sets originating from a RDBMS Data Warehouse.

16. A method of aggregating multidimensional data of atomic data sets originating from other sources, such as external ASCII files, MOLAP server, or other end user applications.

17. A stand-alone scalable data aggregation server which can communicate with any MOLAP server via standard ODBC, OLE DB or DLL interface, on a completely transparent manner with respect to the (client) user, without any time delays in queries, equivalent to storage in MOLAP server'"'"'s cache.

18. A cartridge-style (stand-alone) scalable data aggregation engine which dramatically expands the boundaries of MOLAP into the large-scale applications including Banking, Insurance, Retail and Promotion Analysis.

19. A cartridge-style (stand-alone) scalable data aggregation engine which dramatically expands the boundaries of high-volatility type ROLAP applications such as, for example, the precalculation of data to maximize query performance.

20. A generic plug-in cartridge-type data aggregation component, suitable for all MOLAP systems of different vendors, dramatically reducing their aggregation burdens.

21. A high performance cartridge-type data aggregration server which, having standardized interfaces, can be plugged-into the OLAP system of virtually any user or vendor.

22. A cartridge-style (stand-alone) scalable data aggregation engine which has the capacity to convert long batch-type data aggregations into interactive sessions.