US Patent 7143168 Resource sharing among multiple RSVP sessions

A technique is provided that correctly allocates resources among data flows while taking maximal advantage of resource sharing opportunities. In accordance with the inventive technique, data flows that share the same session group identifier (SGID) are allowed to share resources if no one data flow within the group is sharing its resources with another data flow that has a different SGID. In addition, resource sharing is allowed between data flows that share the same destination provided that none of the data flows are sharing resources with a data flow from another session.