Indexing of real time geospatial data by IoT enabled devices: Opportunities, challenges and design considerations

Abstract

We are moving towards ‘smart' world in which industries, such as healthcare, smart cities, transportation, and agriculture have started using IoT (Internet of Things). These applications involve huge number of sensors and devices that generate high volume of real time data. To perform useful analytics on this data, location and spatial awareness characteristics of devices need to be considered. Wide range of location-based services and sensors in GIS have to manage moving objects that change their position with respect to time. These applications generate voluminous amount of real time geospatial data that demands an effective query processing mechanism to minimize the response time of a query. Indexing is one of the traditional ways to minimize the response time of a query by pruning the search space. In this paper, we performed a detailed survey of the literature regarding the indexing of real time geospatial data generated by IoT enabled devices. Some major challenges relevant to indexing of moving objects are highlighted. Various important index design considerations are also discussed. The goal is to help researchers in understanding the principles, methods, and challenges in the indexing of real time geospatial data. This will also aid in identifying the future research opportunities.