A Resource reSerVation Protocol (RSVP) transmitter proxy reserves network resources on behalf of a multimedia server that lacks RSVP facilities. The RSVP transmitter proxy is preferably disposed in an intermediate network device that is proximate to (e.g., one hop away from) the respective server, and includes a classification engine configured to identify network traffic passing through the network device, and a media session manager for maintaining state and other information for streams and/or sessions being provided by the server. The classification engine may snoop messages exchanged between the server and a client to identify the traffic flow characteristics and bandwidth of a stream. The RSVP transmitter uses the snooped information to generate and send RSVP Path messages on behalf of the server and to terminate RSVP Reservation messages sent to the server, thereby causing network resources to be reserved for the stream.