Patent ID: 7924716

Claim:
A method of coordinating admission control messages across multiple transport network domains for performance by a coordinator entity acting for a local subset of one or more of the transport network domains, the method comprising the steps: i) receiving at least one coordination request message containing admission control request information; ii) forwarding an admission control request message containing the admission control request information towards an admission control interface or functions of the subset of one or more of the transport network domains; iii) receiving an admission control response message containing local admission control response information derived from admission control responses of the or each of the local subset of transport network domains made in response to the admission control request information; iv) generating a further coordination message in dependence on at least the admission control response information; and v) transmitting the further coordination message; wherein the coordinator entity acts in a non-blocking mode, comprising the step of, after receiving the at least one coordination request message, forwarding the coordination request message to a next hop coordinator entity acting for a next neighbouring subset of one or more transport network domains; wherein the method further comprises: receiving a coordination response message containing admission control response information from the next hop coordinator entity; wherein the generating step then generates, as the further coordination message, a coordination response message containing admission control response information generated in dependence on the local admission control response information and the received admission control response information, and the transmitting step comprises transmitting the coordination response message; and wherein the coordination response message is transmitted to a previous hop coordinator entity acting for a previous neighbouring subset of one or more transport network domains.