Remote access to large spatial databases

Enterprises in the public and private sectors have been making their large spatial data archives available over the Internet. However, interactive work with such large volumes of online spatial data is a challenging task. We propose two efficient approaches to remote access to large spatial data. First, we introduce a client-server architecture where the work is distributed between the server and the individual clients for spatial query evaluation, data visualization, and data management. We enable the minimization of the requirements for system resources on the client side while maximizing system responsiveness as well as the number of connections one server can handle concurrently. Second, for prolonged periods of access to large online data, we introduce APPOINT (an Approach for Peer-to-Peer Offloading the INTernet). This is a centralized peer-to-peer approach that helps Internet users transfer large volumes of online data efficiently. In APPOINT, active clients of the client-server architecture act on the server's behalf and communicate with each other to decrease network latency, improve service bandwidth, and resolve server congestions.