Patent ID: 8060617

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a meeting server, a request for scheduling a meeting event between client endpoint devices in an Internet Protocol (IP) based network, the meeting event having a starting time and duration, the meeting event requiring identifiable network resources from the network; determining by the meeting server whether the network will have available network capacity, from provisioned network capacity relative to allocated network capacity, to supply the identifiable network resources during the meeting event; sending by the meeting server a request for additional network capacity to be added to the provisioned network capacity, the additional network capacity required for the meeting event and sent in response to determining the network will not have the available network capacity during the meeting event; and selectively reserving, by the meeting server, the identifiable network resources for the meeting event, from the available network capacity, based on receiving a reply responsive to the request for additional network capacity and that indicates that the additional network capacity will be available for the meeting event.