RSVP Overview

The RSVP protocol is used by routers to deliver quality-of-service (QoS) requests to all nodes along data flow path(s) and to establish and maintain state for the requested service. RSVP requests generally result in resource reservations in each node along the data path. RSVP has the following attributes:

• Makes resource reservations for unidirectional data flows.
• Allows the receiver of a data flow to initiate and maintain the resource reservation used for that flow, as shown in Figure 1.
• Maintains a soft state in routers and hosts, providing graceful support for dynamic membership changes and automatic adaptation to routing changes.
• Depends upon present and future routing protocols, but is not a routing protocol itself.
• Provides several reservation models or styles to fit a variety of applications.
• Supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Note, you can configure the Junos OS to tunnel IPv6 over an MPLS-based IPv4 network. For more information, see the Junos OS MPLS Applications Configuration Guide .

Figure 1: RSVP Reservation Request and Data Flow