[RouterGeocoder] Routing for non-transportation networks?

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Robert Hollingsworth wrote:
>   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

Some transportations systems also need these additional anaylsis for 
things like, postal route planning, snowplow route planning, garbage 
truck or school buss route planning.

> 
> 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.

I think this feature has direct applicability to transportation routing, 
especially, when you start to integrate traffic, or routing around 
disaster areas, like fires, toxic spills, damaged or blocked infrastructure.

> 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"

I found this a very interesting read, and well worth the time.

Best regards,
   -Steve

> thanks,
> Robert H. 
> 
> 
> 
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