The cost of running a query (having a query range) on a multidimensional database may be estimated using a process factors criteria beyond merely the number of affected records. First, a materialized view of the database may be represented as a container of tuples, sorted by key. Then keys may be stepped...http://www.google.de/patents/US7392242?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7392242 - Query costing in a multidimensional database
