In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for the admission control module of a Bandwidth Broker entity that aims at achieving a satisfactory balance between maximizing the resource utilization for the managed network and minimizing the overhead of the module. We also describe, analyze and evaluate mechanisms which aim at solving the additional problems of fairly prioritizing resubmitted requests and efficiently handling requests which do not specify ending times. We use the well known network simulator ns-2, as well as a custom simulation environment in order to study the performance characteristics of the proposed mechanisms and compare them with various alternatives for the admission control module of a Bandwidth Broker. We provide the results of the experimental evaluations and the conclusions they lead us to for the relative importance of the proposed solution and the various alternatives, their advantages and drawbacks, and the environments for which each one is best suited.