Patent ID: 7778180

Claim:
A method for use with a device in a data path, comprising: receiving from a first device along the data path a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) reservation request for the data path; negotiating an RSVP reservation with the first device according to a tentative bandwidth, wherein the tentative bandwidth for the data path is determined as a maximum bandwidth available that can be supported by a first portion of the data path to the first device; negotiating an RSVP reservation with a second device along the data path, wherein: the tentative bandwidth remains unchanged if a second portion of the data path to the second device can support the data path at the tentative bandwidth; and the tentative bandwidth is revised if the second portion of the data path to the second device cannot support the data path at the tentative bandwidth, so as to form a revised tentative bandwidth as the maximum bandwidth available that can be supported by both the first and second portions of the data path; if the tentative bandwidth has been revised, re-negotiating the RSVP reservation with the first device at the revised tentative bandwidth; transmitting to the second device an end-to-end reservation bandwidth, wherein the end-to-end reservation bandwidth is the tentative bandwidth if the tentative bandwidth remained unchanged, and is the revised tentative bandwidth if the tentative bandwidth was revised; and if the end-to-end reservation bandwidth is at least equal to a minimum acceptable bandwidth for a call, completing the RSVP reservation.