Methods, devices, and computer program products facilitate various handoff operations to/from a network. A self-configuring and self-optimizing topology discovery operation provides detailed information regarding the various radio nodes that are internal and external to the network. This information is utilized to construct a plurality of neighbor lists that identify multiple tiers of neighboring radio nodes of the network. The neighbor lists and the measurements obtained from the user equipment within the network provide up-to-date information that facilitates various types of handoff operations.