Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

By: Zhixin Chen

 Outline

 What is SIP?
 Fundamentals of SIP
 Mobility Support Using SIP
 What is SIP ?
 An application-layer signaling protocol that can
establish, modify and terminate multimedia
sessions or calls.
 Developed by IETF (Version 2, March 1999)
 Applications: Voice over IP, Multimedia
Conferences, and Distance Learning etc.
 Simple, scalable, extensible, and mobile.
(Compared to H.323)
 SIP Features
 User Availability: SIP determines the willingness of the called party to engage in
communications.

 User location: SIP determines the terminal to be used for communication.

 User Capabilities: SIP negotiates the type of media and media parameters to be
used for communication.

 Call Setup and Handling: SIP establishes, maintains and terminates the call.

 Support Other Protocols: RSVP (Resource Reservation Setup Protocol) , RTP

(Real Time Transport Protocol) and RTCP(RTP Control Protocol), SDP (Session
Description Protocol)
 SIP Components

User Agent

PSTN

Gateway

Proxy Location Redirect

Server Server Server
 SIP Components
 User Agent includes User Agent Client (UAC) and User Agent Server (UAS). The user agent
client sends the requests. The user agent server receives and processes the requests and returns
responses.

 Proxy Server is like an intermediary program that acts as both a server and a client. Requests are
forwarded, possibly after rewriting the request message.

 Redirect Server advertises the caller to contact another server directly. A redirect server can leave
behind the call request after it has been processed.

 Location Server contains the information about callee’s possible location. Location server is usually
integrated in redirect or proxy server.
 SIP Messages – Requests and Responses
 SIP Requests:  SIP Responses:
 INVITE – Initiates a call by inviting
user to participate in session.
 1xx - Informational
 ACK - Confirms that the client has
Messages.
received a final response to an  2xx - Successful
INVITE request. Responses.
 BYE - Indicates termination of the
call.
 3xx - Redirection
 CANCEL - Cancels a pending
Responses.
request.  4xx - Request Failure
 REGISTER – Registers the user Responses.
agent.  5xx - Server Failure
 OPTIONS – Used to query the
capabilities of a server.
Responses.
 INFO – Used to carry out-of-bound  6xx - Global Failures
information, such as DTMF digits. Responses.
 SIP Addressing
 Email-like address: user@host.
 Examples of SIP addresses:

 sip: chen@montana.edu

 sip: chen@153.90.112.34

 sip: 4069944271@montana.edu
 SIP Headers
 HTTP-like message
 An example of SIP header:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SIP Header
-----------------------------------------------------------------
INVITE sip:dong@montana.edu SIP/2.0
From: sip:chen@montana.edu
To: sip:dong@montana.edu
Call-ID: 12345@sip:dong@montana.edu
CSeq: 100 INVITE
Contact: sip:chen@montana.edu
Content-Type: application/sdp
 Direct Communication between Endpoints
Chen@montana.edu Dong@montana.edu
Port: 1234 Port: 5678
INVITE

100 Trying
180 Ringing
200 OK

ACK

Data Flow

BYE

200 OK
 SIP Operation in the Presence of a Proxy Server
CALLER UA Proxy Server CALLEE UA
INVITE Dong
INVITE Dong@montana.edu
100 Trying
180 Ringing
200 OK
200 OK
ACK
ACK

Data Flow

BYE

200 OK
 SIP Operation in the Presence of a Redirect Server
UAC Redirect Server UAS
INVITE Dong@montana.edu
302 Moved temporarily
ACK
INVITE Dong@ece.montana.edu
100 Trying

180 Ringing

200 OK

ACK

Data Flow

BYE
200 OK
 Mobility in an IP Environment
 Terminal mobility: terminal moves between
subnets
 Personal mobility: different terminals, same
address
 Service mobility: keep same services while
mobile
 IP Mobility
 The IETF has standardized IP mobility support: uses
tunneling of IP packets from a Home Agent to a Foreign
Agent to make the mobility transparent to the higher
layer.

 Problems: triangular routing, each host needs a home IP

address, tunneling management.

 Routing optimization solves the triangular routing

problem. (has its own problem).
 IP Mobility (Cont)
 Move to new network
=> IP address changes
(DHCP)
 Mobile IP hides
address changes
 High latency
 Encapsulation
overhead
 SIP Mobility Support
 SIP supports personal mobility because a user can be
found independent of location and network device.

 SIP can also support IP mobility (need to add the

ability to move while a session is active)
 SIP Mobility Support (Cont)
 MH belongs to a HA with
redirect and location
server.

 Location server receives

registrations from the
mobile host.

 MH does not need a

statically allocated IP
address on the home
network.
 SIP Mobility Support (Cont)
 MH->CH: new
INVITE, with Contact
and updated SDP
 Re-registers with home
registrar
 SIP Mobility Performance and Issues
 Eliminate the need for tunneled data.
 Can be installed easily
 The distinction between personal and terminal
mobility disappears
 Not suitable for fast or small scale mobility
 Conclusion

 SIP is used for initiation, control, and termination

of multimedia conferences.
 SIP follows some of the latest and most widely
used protocols like SMTP and HTTP.
 SIP is simple, extensible, scalable, and mobile.
 SIP can be used to support IP mobility.
 References

 http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/sip-charter.html

 http://www.si2.org/si2_publications/SIPPs/pdf/

 http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/sip/