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Bing maps could load tiles faster updating the api calls

#1

TL,DR:

Doing some performance testing on the loading time of bing maps in one of our products that uses MapSuite WPF Desktop Edition I discovered that tiles requests are hitting an outdated bing server (ecn.{subdomain}.tiles.virtualearth.net).  Getting the tiles from the new ak.dynamic.{subdomain}.tiles.virtualearth.net would result in a significant performance improvement due to a much shorter response time of the new service.



Extended version:

In January last year Bing Maps changed their tiles delivery system to be on-demand, to achieve significant response time improvements:



social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/618e5f6c-7222-446f-b738-7f57a2e2b592/new-url-templates-for-bing-maps-tiles?forum=bingmapsservices



The article shows that with the new system the tiles should be retrieved from ak.dynamic.{subdomain}.tiles.virtualearth.net instead of ecn.{subdomain}.tiles.virtualearth.net.



It’s easy to verify, by using the following sample application provided by Microsoft and a traffic capture application (e.g. Fiddler) that the tiles come from ak.dynamic.{subdomain}.tiles





w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Map<!–</code–>title>

      <meta http-equiv=“Content-Type” content=“text/html; charset=utf-8”/>
      <script type=“text/javascript” src="<a href="ecn.dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=7.0">ecn.dev.virtualearth.net/map...ashx?v=7.0</a>"><!–</code–>script>

      <script type=“text/javascript”>
      var map = null;
             
      function getMap()
      {
         map = new Microsoft.Maps.Map(document.getElementById(‘myMap’), {credentials: ‘BING_KEY_HERE’, disablePanning :false  });
      }
   
      <!–</code–>script>

   <!–</code–>head>

   <body onload=“getMap();”>
      <div id=‘myMap’ style=“position:relative; width:1000px; height:800px;”><!–</code–>div>

   <!–</code–>body>

<!–</code–>html>

Using the latest Wpf Desktop Edition 8 build (8.0.0.147) instead the tiles are still downloaded from ecn.{subdomain}.tiles



I did a performance test, with multiple tiles and multiple downloads of the same tile and here are my results:


    
    
    
    
    
        
            
            Requests to ecn.tX.tiles  - average loading time (ms)
            Requests to ak.dynamic.tX.tiles - average
            loading time (ms)
        
        
            First request
            547.2
            283.2
        
        
            Successive requests
            51.86
            12.67
        
    



Attached you can find the detailed loading time of a typical tile request from both ecn and ak.dyinamic.



 

So my question is: could you confirm which of the two servers ThinkGeo hits?Also, is this a bug or is there any plan to update the API calls considering the evident performance improvements that can be achieved?

Thanks in advance.





#2

Hi Gabriele,

We appreciate you send this news to us, it looks very exciting.


I reviewed the link and tried the metadata address :dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Imagery/Metadata/Road?key=YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY but it didn’t return me the new template url(ak.dynamic…) and still the old one(enc…). 
Currently, map suite BingMapLayer is using bing map’s REST Imagery Service and we take out the template url from the metadata by requesting from dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Imagery/Metadata/Road?&incl=ImageryProviders&o=xml&key={0}". Now, it still returns the old url ecn.{subdomain}… 

I also checked this part from the official page of REST Imagery Service, but I didn’t notice this changes on there. I am not sure if I miss something, but We appreciate if you have any further background information on it.




Regards,
Troy



#3

This topic seems like something that would be directly impacting a lot of people. I don’t see an update at all on this to know if we have moved to the better service calls or are still stuck on the old version. If we are stuck on the old version, what does it take to move to the faster tile retrieve? Our users are not satisfied right now with the Bing imagery and the time it takes to load.

#4

Hi Jake,

Thanks to let us know your question, I did a quickly research about this and found the REST service of Bing map still be V1: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff701724.aspx

I viewed the sample code of Bing map https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff701716.aspx, it looks only the “Birdseye imagery metadata” sample shows the “ak.{subdomain}.tiles.virtualearth.net”, but when I tested the sample “https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Imagery/Metadata/Birdseye/37.779160067439079,-122.42004945874214?o=xml&key=BingMapsKey” (Please use your Bing maps key in this link), it still show the ecn subdomain:

Pasted image932×476 29.6 KB

So I think the Bing maps don’t have a new server for static library, if I missed any important information for it please let me know.

And if the load speed is not so good, please try to open cache for the overlay.

Wish that’s helpful.

Regards,

Ethan