The Distributed Location Resolution Problem and Its Efficient Solution

Location-based applications and services become increasingly important for mobile users. They take into account a mobile user's current location and provide a location-dependent output. To support developers of location-based services, the Nimbus framework hides specific details of positioning systems and provides uniform output containing physical as well as symbolic location information, which often are more suitable for applications and users. One basic problem is the Distributed Location Resolution Problem: given a location; which identifiable areas cover this location, if area information is distributed among different servers? This paper presents an algorithm that solves this problem and runs in the distributed, self-organizing Nimbus infrastructure.