Multiplexing several individual application sessions over a pre-allocated reservation protocol session

摘要

Apparatus and methods are provided for multiplexing application flows. According to one embodiment, a predetermined portion of available bandwidth is reserved over a path through a network communicatively coupling a first network device associated with a first set of terminals and a second network device associated with a second set of terminals for real-time communication sessions among multiple applications running on the first set of terminals and the second set of terminals as a real-time bandwidth pool. The real-time bandwidth pool is thereafter shared among multiple real-time communication sessions involving one or more terminals in the first set of terminals and one or more terminals in the second set of terminals by selectively admitting application sessions involving the one or more terminals in the first set of terminals and the one or more terminals in the second set of terminals based upon currently available resources in the real-time bandwidth pool.