METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RESOURCE RESERVATIONS IN A MULTICASTING NETWORK

摘要

The present invention provides a method for operating a network system and a network system operated correspondingly for improving network resource reservations and allocations. Information included in signaling messages of a given protocol, like the resource reservation protocol (RSVP), which do not provide information about the actual communications status in the network. According to the invention, information concerning the communications/service quality of the network are collected from allover the network. In particular, such information is collected from all network domains and their routers, respectively. The collected information is communicated in the network by extending the signaling messages obtained on the basis of the given protocol. Utilizing the collected information, service quality negotiations between a server and its client are improved. This improvement can be achieved for network systems comprising a network domain serving a single client, and multicasting networks. Furthermore, the present invention provides a solution for pre-reservation of network resources which avoids an unnecessary reservation of network resources and a waste of network resources for subsequent resource allocations.