Patent ID: 7447211

Claim:
A method of establishing a communication channel using protected network resources, comprising: creating a first data packet that contains: an RSVP path message requesting a reservation of network resources; and a first object in addition to the RSVP path message, comprising a connection request, wherein said first object comprises a communications protocol object; sending said first data packet from a first communication endpoint across a network to a second communication endpoint; determining whether both said requested reservation of network resources and said requested connection are acceptable; in response to determining that both said requested reservation of network resources and said requested connection are acceptable, creating a second data packet that contains: an RSVP reservation message related to said request for network resources; and a second object in addition to the RSVP reservation message, comprising a first connection request acknowledgement, wherein said second object comprises a communications protocol object; sending said second data packet from said second communication endpoint to said first communication endpoint; determining at said first communication endpoint whether said RSVP reservation message and said first connection request acknowledgment received from said second communication endpoint as part of said second data packet are acceptable; in response to determining that both said RSVP reservation message and said first connection request acknowledgment received from said second communication endpoint as part of said second data packet are acceptable, creating a third data packet that contains: an RSVP confirm message confirming said reservation of network resources; and a third object in addition to the RSVP confirm message, comprising a second connection request acknowledgement, wherein said third object comprises a communications protocol object; and sending said third data packet from said first communication endpoint to said second communication endpoint, wherein a communication channel between said first communication endpoint and said second communication endpoint is established by said connection request and said connection request acknowledgement objects, and wherein bandwidth on said network is reserved by said RSVP path and said RSVP reservation messages.