Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

Chapter 5
 Introduction

„ A powerful alternative to H.323

„ More flexible, simpler
„ Easier to implement
„ Advanced features
„ Better suited to the support of intelligent user
devices
„ A part of IETF multimedia data and control
architecture
„ SDP, RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol),
SAP (Session Announcement Protocol)

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 The Popularity of SIP
„ Originally Developed in the MMUSIC (Multiparty
Multimedia Session Control)
„ A separate SIP working group
„ RFC 2543
„ Many developers
„ The latest version: RFC 3261
„ SIP + MGCP/MEGACO
„ The VoIP signaling in the future
„ “bake-off”
„ Various vendors come together and test their products against
each other
„ to ensure that they have implemented the specification correctly
„ to ensure compatibility with other implementations

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 SIP Architecture

„ A signaling protocol
„ The setup, modification, and tear-down of
multimedia sessions
„ SIP + SDP
„ Describe the session characteristics
„ Separate signaling and media streams

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 SIP Network Entities [1/4]

„ Clients
„ User agent clients
„ Application programs sending SIP requests
„ Servers
„ Responds to clients’ requests
„ Clients and servers may be in the same
platform
„ Proxy
„ Acts as both clients and servers

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 SIP Network Entities [2/4]
„ Four types of servers
„ Proxy servers
„ Handle requests or forward requests to other servers
„ Can be used for call forwarding, time-of-day routing, or
follow-me services

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SIP Network Entities [3/4]
„ Redirect servers
„ Map the destination address to zero or more new
addresses

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SIP Network Entities [4/4]
„ A user agent server
„ Accepts SIP requests and contacts the user
„ The user responds → an SIP response
„ A SIP device
„ E.g., a SIP-enabled telephone
„ A registrar
„ Accepts SIP REGISTER requests
„ Indicating that the user is at a particular address
„ Personal mobility
„ Typically combined with a proxy or redirect server

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 SIP Call Establishment
„ It is simple, which contains a number of interim
responses.

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SIP Advantages

„ Attempt to keep the signaling as simple as possible

„ Offer a great deal of flexibility
„ Does not care what type of media is to be exchanged
during a session or the type of transport to be used for
the media
„ Various pieces of information can be included
within the messages
„ Including non-standard information
„ Enable the users to make intelligent decisions
„ The control of the intelligent features is placed in the hands
of the customer, not the network operator.
„ E.g., SUBJECT header

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Call Completion to Busy Subscriber Service

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 Overview of SIP Messaging Syntax
„ Text-based
„ Similar to HTTP
„ Disadvantage – more bandwidth consumption
„ SIP messages
„ message = start-line
*message-header CRLF
[message-body]
„ start-line = request-line | status-line
„ Request-line specifies the type of request
„ The response line indicates the success or
failure of a given request.

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„ Message headers
„ Additional information of the request or response
„ E.g.,
„ The originator and recipient
„ Retry-after header
„ Subject header
„ Message body
„ Describe the type of session
„ The most common structure for the message body
is SDP (Session Description Protocol).
„ Could include an ISDN User Part message
„ Examined only at the two ends

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 SIP Requests [1/2]

„ Method SP Request-URI SP SIP-version CRLF

„ Request-URI
„ The address of the destination
„ Methods
„ INVITE, ACK, OPTIONS, BYE, CANCLE, REGISTER
„ INVITE
„ Initiate a session
„ Information of the calling and called parties
„ The type of media
„ 〜IAM (initial address message) of ISUP
„ ACK only when receiving the final response

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SIP Requests [2/2]
„ BYE
„ Terminate a session
„ Can be issued by either the calling or called party
„ Options
„ Query a server as to its capabilities
„ A particular type of media
„ CANCEL
„ Terminate a pending request
„ E.g., an INVITE did not receive a final response
„ REGISTER
„ Log in and register the address with a SIP server
„ “all SIP servers” – multicast address (224.0.1.1750)
„ Can register with multiple servers
„ Can have several registrations with one server

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“One number” service

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 SIP INFO Method

„ Specified in RFC 2976

„ For transferring information during an ongoing
session
„ The transfer of DTMF digits
„ The transfer of account balance information
„ Pre-paid service
„ The transfer of mid-call signaling information

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SIP Responses
„ SIP Version SP Status Code SP Reason-Phrase CRLF
„ Reason-Phrase
„ A textual description of the outcome
„ Could be presented to the user
„ status code
„ A three-digit number
„ 1XX Informational
„ 2XX Success (only code 200 is defined)
„ 3XX Redirection
„ 4XX Request Failure
„ 5XX Server Failure
„ 6XX Global Failure
„ All responses, except for 1XX, are considered final
„ Should be ACKed
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 SIP Addressing

„ SIP URLs (Uniform Resource Locators)

„ user@host
„ sip:[email protected]
„ sip:[email protected]

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 Message Headers

„ Provide further information about the

message
„ E.g.,
„ To:header in an INVITE
„ The called party
„ From:header
„ The calling party
„ Four main categories
„ General, Request, Response, and Entity headers

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General Headers
„ Used in both requests and responses
„ Basic information
„ E.g., To:, From:, Call-ID: (uniquely identifies a specific
invitation to a session), …
„ Contact:
„ Provides a URL for use in future communication regarding
a particular session
„ Examples 1: In a SIP INVITE, the Contact header might
be different from the From header.
„ An third-party administrator initiates a multiparty session.
„ Example 2: Used in response, it is useful for directing
further requests directly to the called user.
„ Example 3: It is used to indicate a more appropriate
address if an INVITE issued to a given URI failed to reach
the user.

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„ Request Headers
„ Apply only to SIP requests
„ Addition information about the request or the client
„ E.g.,
„ Subject:
„ Priority:, urgency of the request (emergency, urgent,
normal, or non-urgent)
„ Response Headers
„ Further information about the response that cannot
be included in the status line
„ E.g.,
„ Unsupported
„ Retry-After

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 Entity Headers
„ Indicate the type and format of information
included in the message body
„ Content-Length: the length of the message
body
„ Content-Type: the media type of the message
body
„ E.g., application/sdp
„ Content-Encoding: for message compression
„ Content Disposition: how a message part
should be interpreted
„ session, alert …

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 Examples of SIP Message Sequences

„ Registration
„ Via:
„ From: and To:
„ Call-ID:
„ host-specific
„ Contact: (for future SIP
message transmission)
„ *
„ Content-Length:
„ Zero, no msg body
„ CSeq:
„ A response to any request
must use the same value of
CSeq as used in the request.
„ Expires:
„ TTL
„ 0, unreg

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 Invitation
„ A two-party call
„ Subject:
„ optional
„ Content-Type:
„ application/sdp
„ A dialog ID
„ To identify a peer-to-peer
relationship between two
user agents
„ Tag in From
„ Tag in To
„ Call-ID
 Termination of a Call

„ Cseq:
„ Has changed

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Redirect Servers
„ An alternative address
„ 302, Moved temporarily
„ Another INVITE
„ Same Call-ID
„ CSeq ++
 Proxy Servers
„ Sits between a user-agent client and the far-end user-
agent server
„ Numerous proxies can reside in a chain between the
caller and callee.
„ The last proxy may change the Request-URI.
„ Via:
„ The path taken by a request
„ Loop detected, 482 (status code)
„ For a response
„ The 1st Via: header
„ Checked
„ Removed
„ Branch: used to distinguish between multiple responses to the
same request
„ Forking Proxy: Issue a single request to multiple destinations
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 Proxy state

„ Can be either stateless or stateful

„ Record-Route:
„ The messages and responses may not pass through the
same proxy
„ Use Contact:
„ A Proxy might require that it remains in the signaling path
„ In particular, for a stateful proxy
„ Insert its address into the Record-Route: header
„ The response includes the Record-Route: header
„ The information contained in the Record-Route: header is
used in the subsequent requests related to the same call.
„ The Route: header = the Record-Route: header in reverse
order

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 Forking Proxy
„ “fork” requests
„ A user is registered at several locations
„ ;branch=xxx
„ In order to handle such forking, a proxy must be
stateful.

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