GNet: a peer-to-peer protocol for Internet scale location-based applications

In this paper, we present design and evaluation of GNet, a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol that is well suited to support wide area location-based service. The GNet protocol uses hierarchical geographic address as identifier of Internet-connected nodes. By combining domain-progressive routing mechanism like plaxton mesh with geographical domain hierarchy, this P2P protocol has the advantages of efficient routing, locality preserving and load balancing etc. In particular, it will benefit Internet scale location-aware applications by supporting position-based, proximity-based and especially geographically scoped operations.