The concepts of $k$-systems, $k$-networks and $k$-covers were defined by A. Arhangel’skiǐ in 1964, P. O’Meara in 1971 and R. McCoy, I. Ntantu in 1985, respectively. In this paper the relationships among $k$-systems, $k$-networks and $k$-covers are further discussed and are established by $mk$-systems. As applications, some new characterizations of quotients or closed images of locally compact metric spaces are given by means of $mk$-systems.
In this note we study the relation between $k_R$-spaces and $k$-spaces and prove that a $k_R$-space with a $\sigma $-hereditarily closure-preserving $k$-network consisting of compact subsets is a $k$-space, and that a $k_R$-space with a point-countable $k$-network consisting of compact subsets need not be a $k$-space.