RSVP, the Resource ReSerVation Protocol, is a resource reservation setup protocol for an integrated services Internet. It is a recent protocol: the specification of the version 1 has been officially published in September 1997 in RFC 2205 [#!RFC2205!#].
The RSVP protocol is used to set up reservations for network resources. RSVP is used by a host to request specific qualities of service and it is used by routers to deliver these requests. This protocol operates on top of the IP protocol, playing the role of an Internet control protocol.
The quality of service provided by the ATM technology can be used when setting up RSVP connections.