[RouterGeocoder] Routing for non-transportation networks?

[Robert Hollingsworth]

Borrowed from previous thread:

> ... which remembers me something I wanted to mention already earlier:
> Talking about routing leads immediately to a discussion about road
> networks, roads, lanes, highway hierarchy, speed, etc.. Of course
> routing in road networks is the largest use case and it makes a quite
> abstract topic easier to explain. But there are many other types of
> networks, and I think a routing library (engine?) should also care about
> those. You agree, don't you?

 Do the Router participants want the
discussion and the initiative to include
non-transportation networks?  Or should 
that be a separate list and separate effort?

I'd like for FOSS to tackle utility infrastructure
design and management (re: closed-source
examples GE Smallworld, Intergraph G/Technology,
the ArcFM application based in ESRI ArcGIS,
some offerings, I think, from Bentley and
Autodesk).

The types of networks:
electric transmission or distribution
gas
telecom, various wire models
water
wastewater

This is a huge subject-matter on its own,
but it has routing requirements that may overlap
the discussion here.

Generally, there are point-based and line-
based features that together maintain a
connectivity that is independent of whether
they have coincident (or any) geometry

The feature objects typically have methods
for reporting their cost in the network,
based on internal state.  An example:
preference for a stored length over a line
geometry measured length.  The feature may
also report that it is "closed" so routing
cannot travel trough it at this moment.

Perhaps this implies that a larger, non-
transportation architecture "subscribes" to
this Open Router architecture, where features
use Open Router's classes and methods to 
build and maintain the feature's connection
state.  Then the feature automatically 
participates in routing.

As this Router architecture develops, I'll
evaluate its capabilities on the basis of
utility infrastructure requirements, and
report any modifications that might be
helpful.  The developer community at large
can decide if these fit the scope or not.

I think I'll also go read about "Boost Graph"

thanks,
Robert H. 

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