A progressive transmission strategy for GIS vector data under the precondition of pixel losslessness

It is well known that the final results of geographic information system (GIS) mapping are composed of rasterized pixels in most display devices. Based on this, pixel equivalence is proposed as two vector data that can produce the same raster image on a device under the same mapping processes and parameters. Moreover, if between the two data, one is considered the original data and the other is its reduced-quantity version, then the latter can be regarded as pixel losslessness relative to the former. In this case, the reduced-quantity version can be used instead of the original data to produce the same result from the perspective of visualization. The aim of this article is to explore how to produce the transmitted data, including an initial code and a series of increments that are used for progressive transmission, to retain pixel losslessness. By illustrating that the vector data can be represented by a vertex or ordered sequence of vertices, this article introduces the detailed concepts of pixel equivalence and pixel losslessness of vector data. Then, the requirements for pixel equivalence between two vertices are deduced by analyzing the coordinate transform processes under specific assumptions. The method to generate an initial code and a series of increments related to a single vertex is proposed to produce vertices that are pixel equivalence to the original vertex under different coordinate transform processes. By discussing the traversing mode of the ordered sequence of vertices based on quadtree cells, a coding algorithm is proposed to develop the progressive transmission related to the multi-vertex and to generate reduced-quantity versions to retain pixel losslessness. Finally, experiments are designed to demonstrate that, under the precondition of pixel losslessness, the proposed progressive transmission method can significantly reduce the amount of transmitted data in the network environment.