Geospatial Resource Discovery (GRD): Problem Statement and Conceptual Architecture

The Internet provides standardized mechanisms for resolving identifiers, such as domain names, to network locations. These mechanisms assume that a client already knows the identifier of the resource it wishes to access. Emerging classes of applications, including augmented reality, autonomous systems, robotics, and spatial computing, operate under a different assumption. In these systems, discovery begins with physical presence and observer context rather than with a predefined name. This document describes the architectural gap addressed by a Geospatial Resource Discovery service. It defines the problem space, explains why existing standards are insufficient, and outlines a conceptual architecture for spatial discovery. This document is informational and architectural in nature. It does not define a protocol, data format, or implementation.