Keeping Track of “Flying Elephants”: Challenges in Large-Scale Management of Complex Mobile Objects

Abstract: The management of mobile objects like cars, persons, or workpieces in a factory is an important task in many context-aware environments. So far, most solutions can either cope with many small objects (few properties) or with a limited number of complex objects in a centralized way. In this paper, we face the challenge of managing a large number of bulky mobile objects (flying elephants). We state requirements, propose basic components, and discuss alternative architectures based on the main influencing factors like mobility and update rate.