Efficient Computation of Group Optimal Sequenced Routes in Road Networks

The proliferation of location-based social networks allows people to access location-based services as a group. We address Group Optimal Sequenced Route (GOSR) queries that enable a group to plan a trip with a minimum aggregate trip distance. The trip starts from the source locations of the group members, goes via a predefined sequence of different point of interests (POIs) such as a restaurant, shopping center and movie theater, and ends at the destination locations of the group members. The aggregate trip distance can be the total or the maximum trip distance of the group members. We introduce a novel approach to efficiently compute group optimal sequenced routes in road networks. We exploit elliptical properties to refine the POI search space and develop efficient algorithms for GOSR queries. Experiments show that our approach outperforms a naive approach significantly in terms of processing time and I/Os.