This was one of the pipe dreams that RSVP was _supposed_ to solve in that you could set up a end to end path with precisely specified characteristics. problem is _all_ the devices in the path need to support RSVP. Now the snake oil salesmen are coming out with boxes which purport to monitor the all paths on the internet and will indvidually select the best path for your flow. The racket will be deafening when all these boxes start running scripted ICMP sweeps to find the "best path". The solution is simple buy adequate pipes and possibly partner with a content delivery network who peers with _all_ the major carriers so that your traffic will not need to transit the major public peering points. Scott C. McGrath