Radio network selection scheme notified by the each network's real-time performance in the multi-layered communication network

Great East Japan Earthquake caused serious damage such as building collapse, fires and flooding as well as damage of communication infrastructures such as mobile phone networks' base stations, backhaul network cables, and etc. In addition, the amount of mobile communication call reached over several dozen times normal situations, and mobile operators was forced to conduct admission control. These combinational reasons had made mobile communication disabled at least several days in wide areas of Japan. A conventional mobile phone supports multiple radio networks such as Cellular and Wi-Fi, however, it does not select an optimal network due to the lack of the network status/quality information acquisition capability. In order to make mobile communication enable even in disasters, the multi-layered communication network is proposed. This paper introduces the overview of multi-layered communication network, and the concept of network selection scheme, which will be implemented on a mobile phone through the research and development project.