An admission control process in an Ethernet-based access network having both active links and idle backup links. When a service request is received in an access node, the process searches for a path of links to an access edge node with sufficient bandwidth to serve the service request. Active links are searched first. If a path of active links with sufficient bandwidth cannot be found, and the service is a unicast request, the process searches for a path that utilizes at least one idle backup link and has sufficient bandwidth to serve the service request.