Multidimensional Data Model for Data Warehouses

Abstract

Data Warehouses (DW) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) are essential elements of Decision Support Systems (DSS), they enable business decision makers to creatively approach, analyze and understand business problems. OLAP data is frequently organized in the form of multidimensional data cubes each of which is used to examine a set of data values, called facts. Each fact is combination of multiple dimensions with multiple levels per dimension. The goal of this paper is the introduction of a multidimensional data model. The model is able to represent and capture natural hierarchical relationships among members (attributes) within a dimension. Moreover the data model is able to represent the relationships between dimension members and facts by mean of cube cells.