Parallel querying of adjustable resolution geospatial database

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled with the memory and operative:
• to receive at least a first map from at least one network;
• to divide at least a portion of the first map into a first grid comprising a first plurality of cells with a first resolution;
• to divide at least the portion of the first map into a second grid comprising a second plurality of cells with a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is a multiple of the first resolution;
• to assign each of the first plurality of cells and the second plurality of cells a unique key using z-order indexing, wherein key length is inversely proportional to resolution such that keys assigned to each of the second plurality of cells are longer than keys assigned to each of the first plurality of cells;
• to determine that, because an initial portion of a key of a first cell of the second grid comprises a key of a first cell of the first grid, the first cell of the first grid comprises the first cell of the second grid;
• to store the first grid and the second grid in memories of a plurality of distributed servers, wherein the first cell of the first grid and the first cell of the second grid are stored in a same one of the distributed servers or are stored in neighboring ones of the distributed servers;
• to receive a query at the main server from the at least one network;
• and
• to direct respective processors of the plurality of distributed servers to perform a parallel search of the first grid and the second grid using the keys for one or more results responsive to the query.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having machine-readable program code embodied therewith, said machine-readable program code comprising:

• machine-readable program code configured:
• to receive at least a first map from at least one network;
• to divide at least a portion of the first map into a first grid comprising a first plurality of cells with a first resolution;
• to divide at least the portion of the first map into a second grid comprising a second plurality of cells with a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is a multiple of the first resolution;
• to assign each of the first plurality of cells and the second plurality of cells a unique key using z-order indexing, wherein key length is inversely proportional to resolution such that keys assigned to each of the second plurality of cells are longer than keys assigned to each of the first plurality of cells;
• to determine that, because an initial portion of a key of a first cell of the second grid comprises a key of a first cell of the first grid, the first cell of the first grid comprises the first cell of the second grid;
• to store the first grid and the second grid in memories of a plurality of distributed servers, wherein the first cell of the first grid and the first cell of the second grid are stored in a same one of the distributed servers or are stored in neighboring ones of the distributed servers;
• to receive a query at the main server from the at least one network;
• and
• to direct respective processors of the plurality of distributed servers to perform a parallel search of the first grid and the second grid using the keys for one or more results responsive to the query.