Method for simulating processing of reservation requests for multicast data streams in communication networks, in which - communication devices are connected to one another within a predefined topology and comprise communication terminals at start and/or end nodes of paths for multicast data streams and network infrastructure devices at intermediate nodes, - the communication terminals at the start nodes each specify quality of service parameters for the multicast data streams for the purpose of reserving resources to be provided by the network infrastructure devices at the intermediate nodes, - the communication terminals at the end nodes each specify a multicast data stream identifier for a reservation request, - the network infrastructure devices at the intermediate nodes and/or a superordinate control device respectively check(s), in the case of a reservation request, whether sufficient resources for transmitting data while complying with the specified quality of service parameters are available in the network infrastructure devices along the respective path, - in the case of sufficient resources, a multicast address assigned to the specified multicast data stream identifier is respectively transmitted to a requesting communication terminal at an end node, characterized in that - communication devices to be simulated in terms of their behaviour are each functionally subdivided into a communication control plane referred to as a control plane and a data transmission plane referred to as a data plane, - simulation system components which are formed by software containers (110, 111) executable in a sequence control environment are respectively provided for functions of the communication devices assigned to the control plane, - the network infrastructure devices on the data plane are modelled by resources respectively provided by means of the network infrastructure devices, - the software containers (110, 111) assigned to the communication devices are selectively executed in the sequence control environment according to the predefined topology and are coupled to one another there, - the software containers (110, 111) for the communication terminals at the start and/or end nodes are executed during the simulation according to details of a respectively provided and/or requested multicast data stream, - the simulation is used to check whether multicast data streams requested according to reservation requests can be provided while complying with the specified quality of service parameters. - communication devices are connected to one another within a predefined topology and comprise communication terminals at start and/or end nodes of paths for multicast data streams and network infrastructure devices at intermediate nodes, - the communication terminals at the start nodes each specify quality of service parameters for the multicast data streams for the purpose of reserving resources to be provided by the network infrastructure devices at the intermediate nodes, - the communication terminals at the end nodes each specify a multicast data stream identifier for a reservation request, - the network infrastructure devices at the intermediate nodes and/or a superordinate control device respectively check(s), in the case of a reservation request, whether sufficient resources for transmitting data while complying with the specified quality of service parameters are available in the network infrastructure devices along the respective path, - in the case of sufficient resources, a multicast address assigned to the specified multicast data stream identifier is respectively transmitted to a requesting communication terminal at an end node, characterized in that - communication devices to be simulated in terms of their behaviour are each functionally subdivided into a communication control plane referred to as a control plane and a data transmission plane referred to as a data plane, - simulation system components which are formed by software containers (110, 111) executable in a sequence control environment are respectively provided for functions of the communication devices assigned to the control plane, - the network infrastructure devices on the data plane are modelled by resources respectively provided by means of the network infrastructure devices, - the software containers (110, 111) assigned to the communication devices are selectively executed in the sequence control environment according to the predefined topology and are coupled to one another there, - the software containers (110, 111) for the communication terminals at the start and/or end nodes are executed during the simulation according to details of a respectively provided and/or requested multicast data stream, - the simulation is used to check whether multicast data streams requested according to reservation requests can be provided while complying with the specified quality of service parameters.