This Recommendation provides a set of specifications for characterizing IP flows requiring assured quality and reliability levels@ and identifies possible decision rules for interpreting and processing that information to ensure that the requested quality and reliability requirements of admitted flows are consistently met. Extracted from existing standards@ a set of flow specifications is provided that network operators need to share in making coordinated admission@ policing@ and resource assignment decisions for offered IP flows. A set of basic decision rules are suggested that cooperating network providers could follow@ in interpreting and acting on such shared information@ to ensure that the end-to-end quality and reliability requirements of admitted flows are consistently met. This Recommendation makes no assumptions about how the shared information is exchanged among cooperating network providers. The focus here is on the semantics and processing of the shared information@ rather than on how it is exchanged.