A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes analyzing characteristics of traffic associated with an application in a data communications network; defining each of a plurality of Access Point Names (“APNs”) for terminating traffic in the data communications network; comparing the application traffic characteristics with the APNs; and selecting one of the APNs based on results of the comparing, in which the selected one of the APNs is assigned to terminate the application traffic. In some embodiments, the application traffic characteristics include at least one of average data packet size, average uplink traffic volume, average downlink traffic volume, triggering traffic data generation, and session frequency. The method may further include periodically re-comparing the application traffic characteristics with the APNs and selecting a different one of the APNs based on results of the recomparing to terminate the application traffic.