Transport and processing of perishable information: essential infrastructure for location based services

Location based services (LBS) have the potential to make a profound impact on our lives. Many industry sources anticipate that the market for LBS will take off during 2002, with the roll out of GPRS being the driver, rather than that of 3G. The existing LBS infrastructure manufacturers include those who have developed the so-called "911" emergency location services, which have been implemented in the USA over the last year, as well as LBS services such as the marine weather forecasting service, Maritime Nowcasting Service (MNS). Weather data can be described as perishable, i.e., it is highly time-sensitive and its relevance and accuracy have rapid rates of decay. This is comparable with much of the anticipated content of future location based services (e.g., traffic congestion, availability of theatre seats or restaurant tables, the progress of a person, animal or consignment, etc.). The paper gives an insight into some of the infrastructure requirements for the processing and transport of perishable information within a LBS, based on four years experience of operating MNS.