Patent ID: 8644150

Claim:
A method of performing admission control in a packet-based telecommunication network including a backbone network coupled between at least first and second access networks using different transmission protocols and technologies; and an admission control system with a hierarchically-structured admission control architecture including admission control subsystem modules each associated with and configured to monitor a respective one of the backbone network and the first and second access networks, and an admission control coordinator module coupled with and configured to control the admission control subsystem modules, the method comprising: receiving at the admission control coordinator module a request from a first user of the first access network to connect with a second user of the second access network; determining at the admission control coordinator module the admission control subsystem modules associated with the first and second access networks; and requesting by the admission control coordinator module to the admission control subsystem modules associated with the first and second access networks and, if the first and second access networks are separate access networks, to the admission control subsystem module associated with the backbone network, to check availability of connection resources of each respective network for establishing a connection between the first and second users.