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SIP Illustrated 1: Basics

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Posted on February 4, 2017 by realtimecommunication.info

In November 2000, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was

accepted by 3GPP as a signaling protocol of the IP Multimedia
Subsystem (IMS) network for IP-based streaming multimedia How often do you visit RT

services. Later it was extended for video conferencing,

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streaming multimedia distribution, instant messaging, presence
else
information, file transfer, etc.
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SIP in VoLTE

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The SIP protocol is easy to understand as it is text-based and

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practically derived from the Hypertext Transfer
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to Period (HTTP)
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Did you know?
and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). SIP is very
flexible and well designed for Internet telephony, on the other Did you know that the articles
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are continuously updated?

hand it has also some disadvantages and limitations. If you’re
Last updates:
new to IMS signalling or you just need some brief introduction
into SIP, I hope you’ll find this post useful. IMS/WebRTC Tracing and
Test Tools

SIP is standardized in RFC 3261, but there are many other Top Posts

RFCs, which update/complement it (e.g. RFC 5626). SIP can VoLTE in IMS
be transported on top of UDP, TCP or SCTP. Ut interface - what is it for?
IMS and 5G
Third Party Registration
IP-SM-GW Transport Level
Interworking
IMS Centralized Services -
Overview
VoWifi Overview
VoLTE - close encounters
Messaging in RCS
eSRVCC - Mind the coverage
hole!
SIP Protocol Stack

As a payload SIP can carry MIME Content, XML,

Session Description Protocol (SDP), Binary Content
(SMSoIP), etc.
For security we can use IPSec or TLS.
SIP clients typically use TCP or UDP on port numbers
5060 or 5061. Port 5060 is commonly used for non-
encrypted signaling traffic whereas port 5061 is typically
used for traffic encrypted with TLS (sips).

Although SIP is being used to establish peer-to-peer

communication, the protocol itself is client-server oriented. In

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contrast to other protocols, the roles of client or server are not

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permanent. In one dialog an endpoint can tobePeriod
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in another can act as a server.

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Roles of endpoints can change – they last only for one

transaction.
Each resource of a SIP network, such as a user agent or Recent Posts

a voicemail box, is identified by a Uniform Resource Rate Limit and Traffic Shaping
Identifier(URI). News: 5G – is our health the toll
to pay?
In SIP we have two types of messages – Requests and
AR, VR – Real-time
Responses. Client always sends a request, server communication in 5G
always responds with a response. News: Wireshark is 20!
Comment: Real-time
communication & AI
SIP Requests SIP URI Overview
VoLTE Conference Call
There are only a few SIP Requests, but their meaning can News: Bitcoin and
fundamentally change based on the value of particular SIP Mobile Networks?
News: RTC in 2017
headers.
Multimedia in VoLTE
News: Mobile IoT Deployments
REGISTER Maps a public URI with the current location IMS and 5G
of the user, is used for authentication of the VoLTE Flows and CS Network
subscriber.
VoLTE KPIs
INVITE Establishes a session, can carry SDP. News: Trends in Telco
PRACK Acknowledges the reception of a VoLTE Flows – Basics
provisional response. Comment: A Piece of Advice for
Every (Telco) Company
UPDATE Modifies some characteristics of a session.
IMS Centralized Services –
ACK Acknowledges the establishment of a Overview
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session – there is no response for this NEWS: Number Portability

request. Sofy Cool & ENUM
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CANCEL Cancels a pending request. SIP Illustrated 5: SIP
Session Routing
REFER Ask recipient to issue SIP request for the SIP Illustrated 4: SIP Session
purpose of call transfer. REPORT THIS AD

SIP Illustrated 3: Routing and

INFO Send mid-session information that does IMS Registration
not modify the session state (e.g. SIP Illustrated 2: SIP Message
communication with MRF).
SIP Illustrated 1: Basics
BYE Terminates a session. GSMA Advanced Messaging –
OPTIONS Queries a server about its capabilities. RCS Universal Profile
News: 2016 Summary
PUBLISH Uploads (presence) information to a
News: Finally 4G?
server.
News: Telco Monitoring
SUBSCRIBE Requests to be notified about a particular News: RCS Reborn?
event.
SCTP Introduction
NOTIFY Notifies the user agent about a particular Challenges of Automated
event. Testing (for telcos)
MESSAGE Carries a message (text, binary, instant, News: IoT and Automatic
service). Emergency Calls
Diameter Overview
OTT and VoLTE Calls
SIP Responses News: UAVs and LTE

The response – as in case of HTTP – is just a code. There is IMS Presence Illustrated:
Beginners Guide
also a text description attached, but that has only an
News: testRTC Demo
informational value. Basically we have two types of responses News: The World is to be All-IP
– Provisional (100 – 199) and Final (200 – 699). Final response VoLTE Illustrated:
Beginners Guide
(e.g. 200 OK or 603 Decline) terminates a SIP transaction.
News: IoT and SIM – does it
go together?
Provisional 1xx Rainy-day Scenarios – S-
CSCF Restoration
100 Trying
News: Internet in Vivo
180 Ringing How to read Initial Filter Criteria
181 Call Is Being Forwarded News: more than HD
ePDG and IPSec
183 Session Progress
News: WhatsApp pushes
Successful 2xx the WebRTC
200 OK Thanks for your visit!

202 Accepted [RFC3265] News: Top 10 IoT Technologies

News: IoT @ home
Redirection 3xx
News: WebRTC – the way to go
300 Multiple Choices
301 Moved Permanently
302 Moved Temporarily Categories
305 Use Proxy
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Request Failure 4xx 5G (6)

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400 Bad Request Bid Goodbye to Period Rashes with Sofy Cool
IoT (10)
401 Unauthorized LTE (13)
402 Payment Required Messaging (3) REPORT THIS AD

OTT (5)
403 Forbidden
Whatsapp (3)
404 Not Found RCS (27)
405 Method Not Allowed IPSMGW (5)

… Presence (6)
Uncategorized (22)
Server Failure 5xx
VoLTE (39)
500 Server Internal Error VoWifi (11)
501 Not Implemented WebRTC (15)

503 Service Unavailable

504 Server Time-out
Archives
505 Version Not Supported
513 Message Too Large February 2019 (1)
December 2018 (1)
Global Failures 6xx
September 2018 (1)
600 Busy Everywhere July 2018 (2)
603 Decline May 2018 (1)
March 2018 (1)
604 Does Not Exist Anywhere
January 2018 (2)
606 Not Acceptable December 2017 (1)
November 2017 (1)
October 2017 (4)
September 2017 (1)
August 2017 (1)
User Agent Client (UAC) and User Agent Server (UAS) can
May 2017 (2)
communicate directly. But in practice there is typically some March 2017 (2)
network infrastructure involved. The SIP network elements February 2017 (3)
consist of Proxies (stateless/stateful), Redirect Servers, January 2017 (2)
December 2016 (3)
Registrar, Gateways, Back-to-back User Agents, Session
November 2016 (1)
Border Controllers, etc. When a UAC sends a request, the October 2016 (1)
request goes through number of proxy servers, which forward September 2016 (1)
August 2016 (2)
it towards the UAS. When the UAS generates a response, the
July 2016 (2)
response is forwarded back to the UAC. June 2016 (4)
May 2016 (2)
April 2016 (3)
March 2016 (5)
February 2016 (2)
January 2016 (2)

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November 2015 (5)

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July 2015 (1)
June 2015 (4)
May 2015 (3) REPORT THIS AD

April 2015 (1)

March 2015 (8)
January 2015 (3)
SIP Proxy
December 2014 (7)
November 2014 (5)
SIP Proxy provides routing within the network.
Can enforce various policies.
Can rewrite specific message parts before forwarding it
to the next network element.

A special type of a server providing authentication and location

service is called Registrar. In IMS network this role is played by
S-CSCF.

SIP Registrar

Redirect server is not that often to see in the IMS. E.g. it can be
implemented by Location Retrieval Function (LRF).

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SIP Redirect Server

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Very important for IMS is the role of Back-to-back User Agent

B2BUA. In fact B2BUAs are special network elements, which
act as ‘double-agents’. They are seen as servers from the client
point of view and as clients from the server point of view. So
technically they split the SIP communication into two legs. In
IMS we use this concept very often, for example all the
Application Servers act as B2BUAs. Later we can
discuss various types of B2BUAs.

SIP B2BUA

B2BUA maintains the complete call state and

participates in all call requests.
Can change arbitrary part of a message. Note, that this
applies also to Call-ID header.
B2BUA can also originate or terminate a message from
the SIP point of view (e.g. IPSMGW).

Another very important network element without which can’t

work any real 4G network is a Session Border Controller
(SBC). This network component has to support many different
functionalities (as we already discussed). One of the reasons
why we have to have the SBC is, that SIP can’t work over NAT.
Simply said, SIP contains IP addresses in headers and also in
the body of a message. But in the real world we use not only

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public IP addresses but also private networks with private

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(therefore not directly addressable) IPs. to Period Rashes with Sofy Cool
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Session Border Controller – NAT

SIP acts as B2BUA.

Provides (among others) NAT, NAT Traversal, IPv4 to
IPv6 interworking, Topology Hiding.

We know that SIP provides signalling for a multimedia session.

To negotiate the session parameters we have to share the IPs
for media session (e.g. RTP, MSRP). The issue is that the
Originator and Recipient can be present in different (private)
networks. It is the job SBC to overcome this obstacle and to
provide correct IP addresses and media routing.

A-SBC Possitioning

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On these pages we discuss mainly IMS network architecture

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and functionalities. It is important
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to Period for a mobile
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device (client application) it is the IMS network (namely the P-

CSCF) which is the first point of contact for the SIP REPORT THIS AD

communication. IMS components then implement the roles of

SIP network elements, sometimes more then one role is
supported.

SIP – IMS

Note: I know there are many much better resources about SIP.
This is simply my way how sort out thoughts

Related posts:

VoLTE Illustrated: Beginners Guide

IMS from 10.000 feet

SIP Illustrated 2: SIP Message

SIP Illustrated 3: Routing and IMS Registration
SIP Illustrated 4: SIP Session
SIP Illustrated 5: SIP Session Routing
??

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