RODD: Robust Outlier Detection in Data Cubes

Abstract

Data cubes are multidimensional databases, often built from several separate databases, that serve as flexible basis for data analysis. Surprisingly, outlier detection on data cubes has not yet been treated extensively. In this work, we provide the first framework to evaluate robust outlier detection methods in data cubes (RODD). We introduce a novel random forest-based outlier detection approach (RODD-RF) and compare it with more traditional methods based on robust location estimators. We propose a general type of test data and examine all methods in a simulation study. Moreover, we apply ROOD-RF to real world data. The results show that RODD-RF can lead to improved outlier detection.