METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ENCODING PARENT-CHILD MAP TILE RELATIONSHIPS

Methods and systems of encoding parent-child map tile relationships in a quad tree data structure are provided. A first bit string is generated, wherein the level and position of a node in the tree is transformed into a string containing values of the nodes in a parent-child relationship, in descending order of level, and a second bit string is generated that identifies and disambiguates the specific level in the quad tree of a reference node.