Patent ID: 8837282

Claim:
A method comprising: obtaining a first message associated with a first data flow, the first message including a first indicator that identifies a first amount of requested pool bandwidth and a second indicator that identifies a pool with which the first data flow is associated, wherein the pool is associated with a plurality of data flows that includes the first data flow; determining whether the pool identified by the second indicator has an overall pool bandwidth allocation; determining whether reserving the first amount of requested bandwidth would cause the overall pool bandwidth allocation to exceed a maximum pool bandwidth allocation associated with the pool when it is determined that the pool identified by the second indicator has the overall pool bandwidth allocation; reserving the first amount of requested bandwidth when it is determined that reserving the first amount of requested bandwidth would not cause the overall pool bandwidth allocation to exceed the maximum pool bandwidth allocation associated with the pool, wherein reserving the first amount of requested bandwidth includes increasing the overall pool bandwidth allocation by the first amount of requested bandwidth; determining whether the overall pool bandwidth allocation is equal to the maximum pool bandwidth allocation when it is determined that reserving the first amount of requested bandwidth would cause the overall pool bandwidth allocation to exceed the maximum pool bandwidth allocation; reserving no amount of the first amount of requested bandwidth when it is determined that the overall pool bandwidth allocation is equal to the maximum pool bandwidth allocation; determining a portion of the first amount of requested bandwidth to reserve when it is determined that the overall pool bandwidth allocation is not approximately equal to the maximum pool bandwidth allocation, wherein the portion of the first amount is less than or equal to a difference between the maximum pool bandwidth allocation and the overall pool bandwidth allocation; and reserving the portion of the first amount of requested bandwidth when it is determined that the overall pool bandwidth allocation is not equal to the maximum pool bandwidth allocation, wherein reserving the portion of the first amount of requested bandwidth includes increasing the overall pool bandwidth allocation by the portion of the first amount of requested bandwidth.