A system and method for providing quality of service guarantees in a packet-switched network is provided. A network including nodes linked together by communication links includes a management node for governing the performance of the nodes. Ingress and egress rate restrictions are defined at the nodes and the management module may disallow a portion of a requested transmission to a node if the requested transmission would result in a violation of one of the ingress and egress rate restrictions. Disallowance of a requested transmission may be made by the management node if either an ingress rate restriction of the transmitting node or an egress of the receiving node would be violated by allowance of the requested transmission.
