Patent ID: 7774468

Claim:
A method comprising: a first edge node requesting from a director node, an amount of bandwidth over a first of a plurality of paths in a network between the first edge node and a second edge node, wherein the director node is configured to maintain information indicative of bandwidth available along each of the plurality of paths; in response to the requested amount of bandwidth being available along the first path, the first edge node receiving, from the director node, an allocation of bandwidth as a real-time bandwidth pool associated with network resources in the first path; the first edge node receiving a connection request to establish a first real-time communication session between one of a first plurality of communication devices coupled to the first edge node and one of a second plurality of communication devices coupled to the second edge node; and in response to determining that network resources in the real-time bandwidth pool are available to permit communication over the first path, the first edge node responding to the connection request by allocating a portion of the real-time bandwidth pool to the first real-time communication session.