Method of and system for providing quality of service in ip telephony

"METHOD OF AND SYSTEM TO PROVIDE QUALITY OF SERVICE IN IP TELEPHONY". A method and system (11) for providing quality of service in an IP telephony session between a calling party (21) and a called party (23) establishes a virtual ATM circuit of high quality of service for the session between first and second devices (25,27), each of the devices (25,27) having ATM capacity and IP capacity. The first and second devices (25,27) provide bidirectional conversion between IP means and ATM means. The system (11) carries IP means for the session between the calling party (21) and the first device (25), and between said called party (23) and a second device (27). the virtual circuit carries ATM means for the session between the first and second devices (25,27). An intelligent control layer (13) provides IP and ATM signaling to configure the session.