Patent ID: 7719972

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a first network node, a signaling message, which is a request-to-send (RTS) message, a clear-to-send (CTS) message, or an acknowledgment (ACK) message, having first resource allocation information, the signaling message sent from a second network node, the first resource allocation information indicating an amount of resources desired by a hop of a first traffic flow that was admitted to a wireless mesh network prior to the first network node receiving the signaling message and including an amount of resources, the first network node and the second network node being located within a common collision domain and contending for shared resources; receiving, at the first network node from a third network node, an admission control request associated with a second traffic flow that had not yet been admitted to the wireless mesh network prior to the first network node receiving the admission control request, the admission control request having second resource allocation information associated with the second traffic flow and the first and third network nodes being associated with the wireless mesh network; identifying, at the first network node, a condition associated with admission of the second traffic flow in response to receipt of the admission control request and based at least in part the first and second resource allocation information received in the signaling message and the admission control request, respectively; and generating an admission control response indicative of the condition associated with admission of the second traffic flow.