Physical access network topology map in hyper operator overlay architecture

A novel service architecture, called hyper operator overlay architecture, has been proposed (see Cao, J. et al., GLOBECOM'02, 2002) to provide seamless services to future mobile users as well as application service providers over heterogeneous access technologies. The basic concept of hyper operator overlay architecture is to organize heterogeneous access networks, various contents and Web service providers, and mobile users in order to mitigate variation among them. Current independently developed service management schemes at each access network cause difficulties in providing truly seamless experience over heterogeneous access networks to mobile users and third party service providers. Among the numerous technical challenges in the hyper operator overlay architecture, the paper focuses on how to estimate a geographical access network configuration without recourse to access network operators, and how to use the physical access network topology map in order to reduce handoff time as well as a device's battery consumption.