Vector maps compression for progressive transmission

Abstract

Problem of progressive transmission of large vector maps from spatial information systems to clients by channels with narrow bandwidth is considered. At first, the simplified version of the vector map is sent to client and the client can manipulate with the data at the coarse resolution level and request finer version of the map. The proposed algorithm includes optimal multiresolution polygonal approximation with quantization and lossless compression of quantized data with arithmetic codes. Proposed approach demonstrated high compression performance with heuristic Douglas-Peucker and optimal minimal-bitrate algorithms.