Patent ID: 8559925

Claim:
A method for a user equipment (UE) to select a mobile communication network to access through a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access network (AN), wherein the mobile communication network is a different network from the WLAN AN, the method comprising: sending, by the UE, an authentication request message to a second access point (AP) of the WLAN AN after a connection between the UE and the WLAN AN has been established; receiving, by the UE, a User Identity Request message from the second AP; obtaining, by the UE, information of the second AP that identifies the second AP; determining, by the UE, whether the information of the second AP matches information of a first AP of the WLAN AN stored in the UE, wherein if the UE previously successfully accessed a first mobile communication network through the first AP, information of the first AP and information of the first mobile communication network are stored in the UE; if the information of the second AP matches the information of the first AP stored in the UE, returning, by the UE, a first User Identity Response message to said second AP, wherein the first User Identity response message carries the stored information of the first mobile communication network; wherein the information of the first mobile communication network carried in the first User Identity response message is used by the second AP to forward the authentication request message to the first mobile communication network.