Location-Aware Query Processing and Optimization

The wide spread use of cellular phones, handheld devices, and GPS-like technology enables location-aware environments where virtually all objects are aware of their locations. Such environments call for new query processing techniques that deal with the continuous movement of both spatio-temporal objects and queries. The goal of this tutorial is to: (1) Give an in-depth view on supporting location-aware queries as an increasingly interesting area of research, (2) Present the state-of-the-art techniques for efficient handling of location-aware snapshot/continuous queries, and (3) Motivate the need for integrating location-awareness as a new query processing and optimization dimension, and (4) Raise several research challenges that need to be addressed towards a true support for location-aware queries in database management systems.