Geographic information system (GIS) is increasingly managing very large sets of data, hence a centralized data index may not always provide the most scalable solution. Recently, the peer to peer (P2P) networks have become very popular for sharing information in a totally decentralized manner. In this paper, a new hybrid P2P spatial indexing network (HPSIN) is proposed, which combines distributed quad-tree with distributed Hash table (DHT) based Chord network to maintain both query efficiency and system load balance. In addition, a simple theoretical model based on opened queueing network for HPSIN is established. Assuming each peer as M/M/1 queueing processor in the model, fundamental characteristics of the system is captured, and expression of average query delay is obtained in close form. The theoretical analysis and numerical computing results show that there exists an optimum point of tradeoff between efficiency and load balance. By setting a proper value of start index level ls for different network scale and query rate, HPSIN will achieve the minimum overall query delay, therefore, can adapt to different P2P application environments.
