Management of performance data

1. A method of handling performance data comprising a set of events, comprising:

storing an event record for each event as a set of blocks, each block containing one or more attributes of the event; and

reducing the storage space occupied by each event record in discrete steps, each step including a reduction process that reduces the size of one of the set of blocks,

wherein the set of blocks comprises one or more of:

a time block identifying the point or period in time at which the event took place;

a space block containing space attributes of the event; and

an information block containing performance attributes of the event,

wherein at least one of the steps includes a space block reduction process that reduces the size of the space block,

wherein the space block reduction process results in a plurality of event records having identical space blocks, the method further comprising aggregating those event records having identical space blocks,

wherein aggregating the event records includes creating a new event record with a time block which is a union of the time blocks of the aggregated event records and a space block which is the same as the space block of each of the aggregated event records, and

wherein the new event record has an information block which contains performance attributes calculated using a probability density function unifying the performance attributes included in the information blocks of the aggregated event records.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the space attributes include one or more of:

node identifiers, addresses, flow identities, path identities, protocol ids, configuration data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performance attributes include data relating to one or more of:

packet loss, delay, retransmission, protocol error codes, counter information.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the space block reduction process includes dropping one or more space attributes from the space block.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the space block reduction process includes combining one or more space attributes in the space block.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the new event record has an information block which is an average of the information blocks of the aggregated event records.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the steps includes an information block reduction process that reduces the size of the information block.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information block reduction process results in an information block having fewer performance attributes or simpler data structures.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the information block reduction process includes the replacement of ranges by average and/or median values.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operation of the reduction processes is controlled by a reduction model.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the reduction model is programmable so as to generate an optimum selection and timing of individual reduction processes.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein attributes that are important for later analysis are retained for longer than less important attributes.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performance data is performance data of a telecommunications network.

14. A method performed at an apparatus configured to process one or more events generated in a network, the method comprising:

for at least one event, initially storing an event record corresponding to that event in a data store; and

at each iteration stage, for at least one event record stored in the data store, performing a reduction process such that an amount of storage space of the data store occupied by that event record is reduced,

wherein each event record processed in the iteration stage is an initial event record or an event record processed in a previous iteration stage,

wherein each event record in the data store is stored as a set of blocks, each set comprising a time block configured to include a point in time or a time interval at which the event took place, a space block configured to include one or more space attributes of the event, and an information block configured to include one or more performance attributes of the event, and

wherein the reduction process performed at each iteration stage is one of a space block reduction process and an information block reduction process, the space block reduction process reducing a dimension of the space block, and the information block reduction process reducing a size of the information block.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the space attributes include one or more of node identifiers, addresses, flow identities, path identities, protocol ids, and configuration data.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the performance attributes include data relating to one or more of packet loss, delay, retransmission, protocol error codes, counter information.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing the space block reduction process comprises one or both of:

dropping one or more space attributes of the space block; and

combining two or more space attributes of the space block into a single space attribute.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing the information block reduction process comprises:

reducing a dimension of the information block; and

replacing one or more performance attributes of the information block so as to have simpler data structures.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

after performing the space block reduction process, determining whether the space block of the event record is identical to the space block of another event record in the data store; and

when it is determined that the space blocks of the event record and of the another event record are identical, creating a new event record in place of the event record and of the another event record, the new event record comprising a new time block, a new space block, and a new information block,

wherein the space attributes of the new space block are identical to the space attributes of the reduced event record, and the new time block is a union of time blocks of the reduced event record and of the another event record.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the new information block of the new event record includes at least one performance attribute represented as a probability density function unifying the performance attributes included in the information blocks event record and of the another event record.

21. The method of claim 14 ,

wherein each event record corresponds to one or more events, and

wherein the correspondence between the event record and the one or more events remains the same before and after the reduction process is performed.