Patent ID: 7734796

Claim:
An IP network, including a plurality of domains, comprising: a source domain and a destination domain, the source domain comprising a source terminal and a first Network Resource Manager (NRM), the destination domain comprising a destination terminal and a second NRM, the source domain and the destination domain having one or more intermediate domains communicatively coupled between the source domain and the destination domain; the source terminal in the source domain comprising means for sending IP packets requiring a predetermined QoS to the destination terminal; the first NRM in the source domain comprising means for requesting from the second NRM a resource sufficient for the transmission of the IP packets to be able to fulfill said QoS; the second NRM comprising means for announcing a domain property label of the destination domain to the first NRM, said domain property label characterizing said destination domain, the first NRM and the second NRM further comprising means for performing an appropriate action and for transmitting the IP packets with said QoS between the source terminal and the destination terminal according to the announced domain property label, said domain property label indicating to the first NRM when additional action is required to reserve resources in the destination domain; and means for using an NRM path vector to identify said second NRM.