Benchmarking spatial big data

Abstract

Increasingly, location-aware datasets are of a size, variety, and update rate that exceeds the capability of spatial computing technologies. This paper addresses the emerging challenges posed by such datasets, which we call Spatial Big Data (SBD). SBD examples include trajectories of cell-phones and GPS devices, vehicle engine measurements, temporally detailed road maps, etc. SBD has the potential to transform society via a number of new technologies including next-generation routing services. However, the envisaged SBD-based services pose several significant challenges for current spatial computing techniques. SBD magnifies the impact of partial information and ambiguity of traditional routing queries specified by a start location and an end location. In addition, SBD challenges the assumption that a single algorithm utilizing a specific dataset is appropriate for all situations. The tremendous diversity of SBD sources substantially increases the diversity of solution methods. Newer algorithms may emerge as new SBD becomes available, creating the need for a flexible architecture to rapidly integrate new datasets and associated algorithms. To quantify the performance of these new algorithms, new benchmarks are needed that focus on these spatial big datasets to ensure proper comparisons across techniques. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.