17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the scaling/weighting processor is configured to calculate a representative mean value for each descriptive attribute j, configured to calculate a standard deviation x j for each descriptive attribute j, configured to determine a difference between each original value x i,j and the representative mean value x j for each descriptive attribute j to form a corresponding set of intermediate values {dot over (x)} i,j for each descriptive attribute j, configured to divide each intermediate value {dot over (x)} i,j for each descriptive attribute j by the standard deviation σ j for the corresponding descriptive attribute j to form a corresponding set of scaled values {acute over (x)} i,j for each descriptive attribute j with the common base represented by zero mean and unity variance, and configured to form a covariance matrix Σ from the scaled values {acute over (x)} i,j for the plurality of descriptive attributes j.
15. An apparatus for deriving a composite tie metric for an edge between nodes of a telecommunication call graph, comprising: a data communication module configured to receive a plurality of descriptive data from a remote storage device, wherein the plurality of descriptive data includes original values x i,j for a plurality of descriptive attributes j associated with a telecommunication call graph formed by a plurality of edges i between a plurality of nodes, wherein each edge i relates to two nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein each original value x i,j relates to a unique edge i in the telecommunication call graph and a unique descriptive attribute j for the corresponding edge i, the unique edge i and unique descriptive attribute j forming an edge-attribute pair i,j relating to the corresponding original value x i,j ; a local storage device configured to at least temporarily store the plurality of descriptive data; a scaling/weighting processor configured to determine scaling factors for each descriptive attribute j in a manner that takes into account a distribution of the original values x i,j for the corresponding descriptive attribute j and a common base for the plurality of descriptive attributes j and configured to determine weighting factors for each descriptive attribute j; and a composite tie metric processor configured to compute a composite tie metric S of a first edge i 1 between first and second nodes based at least in part on a first original value x i 1 j 1 for a first attribute j 1 associated with the first edge i 1 , a first scaling factor for the first attribute j 1 , a first weighting factor for the first attribute j 1 , a second original value x i 1 j 2 for a second attribute j 2 associated with the first edge i 1 , a second scaling factor for the second attribute j 2 , and a second weighting factor for the second attribute j 2 , wherein the plurality of descriptive attributes j include the first attribute j 1 and the second attribute j 2 ; wherein the scaling/weighting processor is configured to determine the scaling factor for each descriptive attribute j based at least in part on determining a representative maximum value |x j | for the corresponding descriptive attribute j to establish a unit base for each descriptive attribute j as the common base; wherein the representative maximum value |x j | for each descriptive attribute j is based at least in part on the expression: | x j | = ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ ⁢ x i , j 2 where n defines a number of edges included in the plurality of edges.