  Multi-way Theta-join queries are powerful in describing complex relations and
therefore widely employed in real practices. However, existing solutions from
traditional distributed and parallel databases for multi-way Theta-join queries
cannot be easily extended to fit a shared-nothing distributed computing
paradigm, which is proven to be able to support OLAP applications over immense
data volumes. In this work, we study the problem of efficient processing of
multi-way Theta-join queries using MapReduce from a cost-effective perspective.
Although there have been some works using the (key,value) pair-based
programming model to support join operations, efficient processing of multi-way
Theta-join queries has never been fully explored. The substantial challenge
lies in, given a number of processing units (that can run Map or Reduce tasks),
mapping a multi-way Theta-join query to a number of MapReduce jobs and having
them executed in a well scheduled sequence, such that the total processing time
span is minimized. Our solution mainly includes two parts: 1) cost metrics for
both single MapReduce job and a number of MapReduce jobs executed in a certain
order; 2) the efficient execution of a chain-typed Theta-join with only one
MapReduce job. Comparing with the query evaluation strategy proposed in [23]
and the widely adopted Pig Latin and Hive SQL solutions, our method achieves
significant improvement of the join processing efficiency.
