Distributed Computing

Distributed computing is an important research domain in computer science and information technology. It plays a significant role in the development of next-generation geographic [Page 777]information systems (GIS), including Web GIS and mobile GIS. The major goal of distributed computing is to provide an effective, open, and dynamic computing framework to facilitate via networks the integration of data, applications, and services physically located in different places. There are several distributed computing frameworks available today, such as Microsoft .NET, the JAVA platform, and Common Object Request Broker Architecture. For many GIS applications, these frameworks provide sharable and interoperable software environments for developing online, distributed geographic information services (GIServices). The deployment of high-level distributed GIServices is built on lowlevel distributed computing technologies. Distributed computing technologies can facilitate ...