Formal Foundations

Summary

This chapter sets out a precise model of decentralized spatial information systems, like geosensor networks. The model has three main levels, each of which builds on structures in the previous level. First, a minimal, neighborhood-based model of geosensor networks provides the most fundamental structures for sensing and communicating information about the environment. Next, an extended spatial model of static geosensor networks provides additional quantitative and qualitative structures to model spatial location. Third, a spatiotemporal model of dynamic geosensor networks provides the capability to precisely model spatial and environmental change over time. In addition, two auxiliary structures are also discussed: a model of the partial knowledge about the decentralized system available to each individual node; and the most common communication network structures, which constrain the movement of information in any decentralized spatial information system.