Software Defined Access (“SDA”) is a network architecture for heterogeneous
networks that extends the concept of software defined networking for the core network
to mobile devices connected at the network edge. SDA integrates various data
networks available to mobile devices into a virtual network infrastructure and provides a
logical control path to mobile devices. The logical control path enables the SDA
architecture to dynamically configure mobile devices and the flows associated with
them. Moreover, SDA provides mechanisms to learn the unknown and time-varying
underlying network states as well as user preferences. This information is then used to
optimize network performance by adaptively configuring flow paths. The proposed SDA
architecture design is independent of network operators and underlying wireless
technologies.