[OSGeo-Discuss] Remote routing solutions

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Mateusz Loskot wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> May I kindly ask for a bit of brainstorming about
> available and programmatically callable,
> optionally usable,
> optionally effective,
> optionally robust
> solutions of remote routing services?
> 
> The use case is very simple:
> 1) client is a non-Web thin client
> 2) client has access to the Internet
> 3) client knows two locations "start" and "destination"
> 4) client wants to know how to travel from start to destination
> 
> What are available options to achieve that? Where if availability means:
> * accessible for public
> * free of charge
> * does not require to sign anything,
> 
> Custom solutions built on OGC-enabled stack (e.g. PyWPS, etc.) is also
> an option to discuss.
> 
> Any input greatly appreciated.
> 
> Best regards,

Mateusz,

Is the client looking for a solution that runs somewhere on the net that 
they can make requests to, or are they looking to setup a server with 
data and a routing engine?

So I'll plug my infant and immature routing engine project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/opengraphrouter/

Also pgRouting is an option.

The big issues in most cases will be data. Some people are doing routing 
with OpenStreetMap and pgRouting. If they want accurate (ie: navigable 
routes then they will probably need something based on Navteq or 
TeleAtlas) or if they are look at a small county or state wide area then 
they might be able to get data from the local governments like 
http://www.mass.gov/mgis/mapping.htm

Because good data is expensive and licensed, in most cases by 
transactions, it is not likely that you will find services equivalent to 
Google that are free.

-Steve W