Patent ID: 7372833

Claim:
A method for allocating transmission resources between first and second network elements, the method comprising: sending a request message, from the first network element to the second network element, the request message including a value of a capacity that the first element desires to allocate for use between the two network elements, receiving the request message in the second network element and finding a capacity value which is acceptable from the point of view of the second network element and not greater than the value received in the request message, sending a response message from the second network element to the first network element, the response message including the capacity value found in the second network element, receiving the response message in the first network element and making a decision, based on the capacity value received in the response message, on the acceptability of the resource allocation, and sending a confirmation message from the first network element to the second network element, the confirmation message including data indicating the decision made, wherein the first and second network elements are in a packet switching network comprising physically different networks, the first network element being the sending network element, wherein the resources are allocated by exchanging messages above a network layer between the first and second network elements, wherein the request message further includes a type of the capacity, a token for identifying the request, a bandwidth of the type of the capacity, tariff information related to the capacity, and time information indicating how long the resource allocation is to be valid.