Several structured peer-to-peer networks have been created to solve the scalability problem of previous peer-to-peer systems such as Gnutella and Napster. These peer-to-peer networks which support distributed hash table functionality construct a sort of structured overlay network, which can cause a topology mismatch between the overlay and the underlying physical network. To solve this mismatch problem, we propose a topology-aware hierarchical overlay framework for DHTs. The hierarchical approach for the overlay is based on the concept that the underlying global Internet is also a hierarchical architecture, that is, a network of networks. This hierarchical approach for the overlay puts forth two benefits: finding data in a physically near place with a high probability, and smaller lookup time. Our hierarchical overlay framework is different from other hierarchical architecture systems in a sense that it provides a specific self-organizing grouping algorithm. Our additional optimization schemes complete the basic algorithm which constructs a hierarchical structure without any central control.