Patent attributes
A network, computer readable medium, and method for ranking a plurality of available access networks by a provider, the provider serving a user equipment and the user equipment being configured to connect to at least one of the plurality of available access networks. The method includes receiving a selection request at a selection entity of the provider, where the selection request includes a vector parameter P that includes required characteristics of a data flow for the user equipment, sending from the selection entity a capability request, including the vector parameter P, to the plurality of available access networks, receiving at the selection entity a capability response from the plurality of available access networks, wherein each capability response includes a normalized value expressing a capability of a corresponding available access network to provide the required characteristics of the data flow, and generating a ranking list of the available access networks based on the received normalized values.