LOCATING AND SHARING GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION IN A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK

Methods and apparatus are provided for searching, obtaining, and distributing geospatial information in peer-to-peer networks. A geospatial information application identifies regions of geospatial information available at various peer nodes. The regions may be multidimensional and time varying and are typically associated with associated with information layers and/or components. Regions that overlap with or otherwise correspond to a user requested target region are obtained from peer nodes. The obtained regions may be combined, displayed, marked, and/or stitched to respond to a request. Various content types such as raster or feature based geospatial content from various sources such as files, databases or Web services can be shared within the distributed network.