A network element (NE) in a network, comprising a memory configured to store time-based traffic engineering (TE) information associated with network resource reservations on a link attached to the NE in a series of time intervals each having a predetermined start time and a predetermined end time, and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to reserve, at a first current time, a network resource for a temporal tunnel service (TTS) on the link to carry traffic during a scheduled time interval subsequent to the first current time, wherein the scheduled time interval comprises a scheduled start time and a scheduled end time, and update, at the first current time, the time-based TE information in the scheduled time interval according to the network resource reserved to produce a first updated TE information in the scheduled time interval.