A resource reservation and admission control scheme uses pseudowires to reserve bandwidth over a layer-2 and/or layer-3 network. The pseudowires are associated with ports on different network processing devices. During a resource reservation and admission control session, the physical links used by the pseudowire are selected and reserved to more effectively allocate network bandwidth. The negotiated pseudowire is then used to transport content for a communication session over the network. In one example application, the resource reservation and admission control scheme is used during a Downstream External PHY Interface (DEPI) session for pseudowires established between a Modular Cable Modem Termination System (M-CMTS) Core and an Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Interface (EQAM) device. However, the reservation protocol can be used in any application that needs to reserve bandwidth over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.