An improved apparatus and method for enhancing the performance of optical transmission and network systems. The business rule framework may allow a user access to a business rule management system using a common interface, regardless of a vendor or version of BRMS being used by a business organization. The cell selection unit selects the cell ID having a number closest to the cell ID of the serving cell from the cells in the CoMP set. The negotiation request can specify that the client computer supports a selected encryption algorithm.