Abstract. Evaluating Location Dependent Queries Using ISLANDS

Abstract

The recent emergence of handheld devices and wireless networks has implied an exponential increase of terminals users. So, today, service providers have to propose new applications adapted to mobile environments. In this article, our goal is to present, through a Proximity Electronic Commerce (PEC) application, the query management in ISLANDS (Information and Services LocalizAtioN and Discovery Service), a localization service adapted to such environments. ISLANDS supports location dependent queries such as “retrieve the closest cinema”. Therefore, its query evaluator has to determine the location of the query issuer. The originality of our approach relies on the possibility to estimate the issuer localization using the information of nearby participants when the underlying handheld device is not equipped with geo-localization techniques such as GPS. So, ISLANDS may return approximate solutions for location dependent queries. 1