A location-based service application for a mobile computing environment

The convergence of multiple technologies has given rise to new types of information utilities called mobile location-based services. Specifically, the authors examine a context in which people need to move physically from one location to another via taxis. In this scenario, the user is in control of the location information associated with the mobile device. However, problems arise when a fleet management application uses that dynamic information to provide the best taxi assignment. This particular vehicle-routing problem aims to allocate a taxi fleet to a number of mobile units to minimize the running distance and time. This article presents a new approach to the taxi assignment problem in a mobile environment based on optimization and simulation. Its specific interest is to predict the impact of the interaction between the assignment algorithm and fleet management in the mobile environment on the desired quality of service for mobile users.