K-Trek: A peer-to-peer approach to distribute knowledge in large environments

Abstract

In this paper, we explore an architecture, called K-Trek, that enables mobile users to travel across knowledge distributed over large geographical areas (ranging from large public buildings to national parks). Our aim is to provide, distribute, and enrich the environment with location-sensitive information for use by agents on board mobile and static devices. Local interactions among K-Trek devices and the distribution of data in the larger environment follow some typical peer-to-peer patterns and techniques. We introduce the architecture, discuss some of its potential knowledge management applications, and present a few experimental results obtained by means of simulation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.