Data processing system and method

1. A method for processing data, comprising:

quantizing a portion of the data at a first node within a distributed database processing system to generate one or more quantization tuples;

aggregating the tuples at the first node to create a plurality of aggregated tuples; and

transmitting the aggregated tuples to a second node within the distributed database processing system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprise one or more records.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said quantizing occurs on continuous-value data found in the records.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprise a data stream.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data comprise a bounded data set.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said quantizing occurs through the execution of a query.

7. A system for processing a plurality of records, the system comprising:

a first node comprising a processor, said node configured to receive a subset from the plurality of records;

a second node comprising a processor, said second node connected to the first node; and

a quantization mechanism executable by the processor of the first node,

wherein the quantization mechanism quantizes instances of data within a record of the subset received at the first node to create a quantization tuple, and

wherein the processor of the first node aggregates the created quantization tuple with at least one other quantization tuple to create an aggregated tuple which is transmitted to the second node.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first node is a map node and the second node is a reduce node within a distributed map-reduce processing system.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the map-reduce processing system is query-based.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein first node is arranged to execute a map function as part of a distributed map-reduce process.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the map function comprises the quantization mechanism.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first node is one of a plurality of map nodes and the second node is one of a plurality of reduce nodes, said pluralities of map and reduce nodes being arranged to execute a map-reduce process.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of map nodes execute in parallel following a predetermined cycle for processing.

14. The system of claim 7 , operating as part of distributed data processing network, with each processor of the first and second nodes executing a database engine for performing a map-reduce process, and

wherein the database engine of the first node performs a map function using the quantization mechanism.

15. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first and second nodes are nodes within a network of a telecommunications system.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first node is one of a plurality of map nodes and the second node is one of a plurality of reduce nodes, said pluralities of map and reduce nodes being arranged to execute a distributed map-reduce process in the telecommunications system.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of records comprise call-detail records generated by the telecommunications system.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first and second nodes comprise service control point nodes in a telecommunications signaling network.

19. A non-volatile machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, if executed by a machine, result in:

quantizing a portion of data at a first node within a distributed database processing system to create a plurality of tuples;

aggregating the tuples at a map node to create a plurality of aggregated tuples; and

transmitting the aggregated tuples to a second node within the distributed database processing system.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the data comprises a plurality of records and said quantizing occurs on multiple instances of continuous-value data found in each record.