Abstract

An algorithm is presented for finding the k nearest neighbors in a spatial network in a best-first manner using network distance. The algorithm is based on precomputing the shortest paths between all possible vertices in the network and then making use of an encoding that takes advantage of the fact that the shortest paths from vertex u to all of the remaining vertices can be decomposed into subsets based on the first edges on the shortest paths to them from u. Thus, in the worst case, the amount of work depends on the number of objects that are examined and the number of links on the shortest paths to them from q, rather than depending on the number of vertices in the network. The amount of storage required to keep track of the subsets is reduced by taking advantage of their spatial coherence which is captured by the aid of a shortest path quadtree. In particular, experiments on a number of large road networks as

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