Processing location-dependent queries with location granules

  • Authors:

  • Sergio Ilarri;Eduardo Mena;Carlos Bobed

  • Affiliations:

  • IIS Department, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain;IIS Department, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain;IIS Department, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

  • Venue:
  • OTM'07 Proceedings of the 2007 OTM Confederated international conference on On the move to meaningful internet systems - Volume Part II
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Existing approaches for the processing of location-dependent queries implicitly assume location data expressed at maximum precision (e.g., GPS). However, there exist applications where managing location data with this precision is not required and may even be inconvenient. Thus, for example, a user could just be interested in the city that a train is currently traversing. In this situation, retrieving the precise geographic coordinates would lead to an unnecessary overhead in terms of the data communications needed to track the continuously changing current location. Moreover, the user would need some mechanism to translate the coordinates into the corresponding city. In this paper, we stress the importance of a query processing approach that adapts itself to the needs of the user and the level of resolution required: the user should be able to express queries and retrieve results according to his/her own terminology for locations (GPS, cities, states, provinces, or any other geographical area). We have implemented a prototype to test the functionality and the interest of location granules and show the independence between the query processing approach and different ways of presenting the answers.