System and method for supporting quality of service in vertical handovers between heterogeneous networks

A method comprising:

• maintaining a handover network for use, at least in part, in performing vertical handovers;
• and
• using a gateway selected from a plurality of gateways, based on quality of service (QOS) considerations, to route and forward communication traffic from a first network operator to a second network operator during a vertical handover via the handover network, wherein at least one of the first and second network operators is a wireless network operator.

An architecture comprising:

• a hyper operator network to establish paths for vertical handover communication traffic and to maintain and monitor traffic in the paths;
• a gateway coupled to hyper operator network, wherein the hyper operator overlay network cooperates with the gateway to route and forward communication traffic from a first network operator to a second network operator during a vertical handover via the handover network, wherein at least one of the first and second network operators is a wireless network operator.