SIP Fundamentals

VoiceCon Orlando 2010

Dan York, Director of Conversations, Voxeo

March 23, 2010

With thanks to David Bryan of Cogent Force

Quick Survey – Who Are You?

  Type of business:
•  Enterprise?
•  System integrator? reseller?
•  Government?
•  Other?

  Have a SIP system today? Considering one?

  SIP experience?
•  I know how to spell it
•  Worked with it a bit
•  Wrote several of the SIP RFCs

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 About Dan York

www.ietf.org

www.voxeo.com
www.sipforum.org

blogs.voxeo.com/speakingofstandards

www.disruptivetelephony.com www.7ducattacks.com

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
About Voxeo

  Founded in 1999
  World’s largest hosted VoiceXML and CCXML platform – Over
82,000 hosted ports globally; hundreds of premise deployments
  Over 100,000 developers using Voxeo platforms
  The Voxeo difference: Unlocked Communications, Customer
Obsession Teams, Communications Passion
  Services/software available for free: www.voxeo.com/free

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Voxeo - Built for VoIP Since Day One

  100% SIP VOIP-based

communications application
platform
•  Built from the ground up; natively
SIP-based
•  Other XML IVR platforms were built
on a CT card-centric model with SIP
added afterwards as a “virtual” or
“emulated” CT card
  Works with the widest variety of
SIP providers, gateways,
softphones and adapters
  SIPMethod SIP Servlets Platform
•  IM, Presence, Session Border
Controller

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Voxeo: Design Once − Deploy Anywhere

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
A Quick Background
Some (brief!) Background on VoIP

  Packet Switched, not Circuit switched

•  There is no dedicated path that traffic follows
•  Segmented into IP packets, sent to target, particular
path not specified

  Original telephone network was circuit switched

(think of the operator w/wires)
•  SS7, defined by the ITU (International
Telecommunications Union)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Circuit Switched Network

There is a dedicated, fixed line (usually

physically connected) between parties, and
reserved for their use

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Packet Switched Network

There is no physical connection. The call is

chopped into packets, which are sent over
a network of devices, perhaps using
different paths

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Today... ITSP
ITSP
ITSP
ITSP
ITSP

ITSP

ITSP
ITSP
Internet
ITSP
ITSP ITSP
Telephony
Service
Provider ITSP

ITSP PSTN ITSP

ITSP

ITSP
ITSP
ITSP ITSP
ITSP

ITSP
ITSP
ITSP

ITSP ITSP ITSP ITSP

ITSP ITSP
ITSP ITSP ITSP ITSP ITSP
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Traditional Telephony
1.1 

PSTN
PBX
Gateways

Physical
Voicemail
Wiring

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 VoIP and Unified Communications
1.2 

Mobile
Devices
IM Application
Internet Servers
Networks
Operating
Systems
PSTN
IP-PBX VoIP
Gateways

Web IP Social
Firewalls
Servers Network Networks

Physical Directory
Voicemail
Wiring Servers

Desktop
Email PCs Database
Servers CRM Servers
Systems

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
VoIP Protocols

  H.323
•  ITU defined VoIP protocol
•  ITU is very formal, government oriented
•  More “telephony” in nature than Internet

  SIP
•  IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) defined
protocol for general multimedia session establishment
•  IETF is much less formal, individual oriented
•  More “Internet” in nature than telephony

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
H.323 vs. SIP

Feature H.323 SIP

Encoding Binary Text
Control Centralized server
Endpoints (using
proxy)
Intelligence Most in central server; Most in the
core endpoints; edge
Modularity Monolithic (all in one Can be multiple
server) servers
Defined by ITU IETF
Media RTP RTP

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Basics
SIP
  Session Initiation Protocol

  Defined (mostly) in IETF RFCs 3261-3264

•  Many other drafts extend SIP and add new
features

  Text based, very similar to HTTP, mail protocols

  Establishes a media session between endpoints

  Allows mobility – locate users using a SIP URI (sip:dyork@voxeo.com)

•  Multiple endpoints can be associated with single SIP URI

  Usually runs on port 5060, using UDP or TCP

  Allows for IPv4 and IPv6 (Next generation mobile phones use SIP over
TCP/IPv6)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP

  Offers Event management (Subscribe/Notify)

for presence etc.
  Extended by SIMPLE to support IM (Instant
Messaging)
  Designed to allow easy interoperation with
other Internet features such as WWW and
email

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Why is SIP Important?
  It’s all about standards

  The promise of interoperable equipment

•  A Nortel phone talking to a Cisco proxy to
reach another user with an Avaya phone

  Designed for the future

•  Any media (voice, video, text, ???)
•  Internet/endpoint centric design
•  Easily extensible

  SIP has become the dominant VoIP

protocol

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Major Components of SIP

  SIP systems specify components logically

  There are several components specified
•  UA (User-Agent, Endpoint) – the phone or application
•  Registrar – keeps track of where the user is within a
system
•  Redirect Server – used to inform devices when they need
to contact different locations
•  Proxy Server – used to relay messages back and forth
within the system

  In practice, several logical functions may actually

reside in the same physical server/program

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
User Agents

  A User Agent (also called a UA, Phone, or

Endpoint) represents a user of a SIP system
•  A particular user may have more than one UA
•  Can be hard device (fixed or mobile) or a “soft client”
– an application running on a PC

Hard Phone Mobile Hard Phone Soft Client

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
UAs and Proxies

  Many things are really built on UAs

•  Session Border Controllers are usually 2 UAs connected
•  B2BUA or “Back-to-Back User Agent”
•  (sometimes also an ALG -- special kind of firewall)
•  Voice mail servers
•  Interactive Voice Response systems

  SIP Proxy
•  Often what is sold as a proxy is really a Proxy/Registrar/
Redirect server
•  Proxy is often part of IP-PBX, “call server”, etc.

  “Softswitch” often incorporates all of this

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Basic SIP Call Flow
3.1 

Proxy

SIP SIP

Alice Bob
Media

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP & Media Paths

SIP SIP
Proxy Proxy
A SIP B

SIP SIP

Alice Bob
Media (RTP, MSRP, etc.)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Proxy
Bob is over at
bob-isp.com.
I’ll proxy the
call over there!

“I need to call Bob!”

sip.bob-office.com

“Call here for

Bob from Alice”

“Call for you

from Alice!”

sip.bob-isp.com

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Registration

“I’m Alice, and I’ll be using a When I get a

phone at 192.168.0.1 today!” call for Alice, I’ll
know to
contact her at
192.168.0.1!
192.168.0.1 Registrar

sip.cogentforce.com

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Registration

SIP
Registrar

1
SIP

2
SIP SIP
Proxy Proxy
A SIP B

SIP SIP

Alice Bob
Media (RTP, MSRP, etc.)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Redirection

“I need to
call Bob!”

sip.cogentforce.com

“Call here for “Call here

Bob from Alice” for Bob
from Alice” sip.bob-isp.com
“Try him at
bob-isp.com”

sip.bob-office.com “Call for you

from Alice!”

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
The Simple Picture

SIP SIP
Proxy Proxy
A SIP B

SIP SIP

Alice Bob
Media (RTP, MSRP, etc.)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
The Complex Reality

SIP SIP SIP SIP SIP

Proxy Proxy Proxy Proxy Proxy
A SIP B SIP C SIP D SIP N

SIP Internet (or WAN) SIP

Media Media
Alice Proxy Proxy Bob
Media A Media B Media

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Messages

  SIP messages fall into two types – requests and

responses
  Requests include a method telling what it is they
are doing.

•  REGISTER, to register where to contact a user

•  INVITE, to start a new session (call)
•  BYE, to end a session that is established
•  CANCEL, to end a session that is still being set up (no
final response yet)
•  ACK, part of the triple handshake
•  Several others

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Messages

  Responses are numeric, much like HTTP

•  1xx Provisional – 100 Trying, 180 Ringing

•  2xx Successful – 200 OK
•  3xx Redirection – 301 Moved Permanently, 302
Moved Temporarily
•  4xx Failure – 404 Not Found, 410 Gone, 403
Forbidden
•  5xx Server Failure – 503 Service Unavailable
•  6xx Global Failure – 600 Busy Everywhere

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Registration Call Flow

SIP Server

REGISTER

401 Unauthorized

REGISTER

200 OK

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Basic Call Flow
SIP Server

INVITE
INVITE
100 Trying
180 Ringing
180 Ringing
200 OK
200 OK
ACK
ACK
Bi-directional Media between endpoints
BYE
BYE

200 OK
200 OK
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
No-answer Call Flow
SIP Server

INVITE
INVITE
100 Trying
180 Ringing
180 Ringing

CANCEL
200 OK
CANCEL
200 OK
487 Request Terminated
487 Request Terminated
ACK
ACK

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
AORs and Contacts

  In SIP, a registrar maps between an AoR and a

contact

•  AoR: Address of Record

•  Permanent, something on your business card
•  Not tied to a specific device
•  sip:dyork@voxeo.com
•  Contact
•  Ephemeral, tied to a device
•  sip:dyork@pc141.voxeo.com
•  Being able to change AoR→Contact mapping allows
mobility

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Registration, revisited

“I’m Alice (alice@phonecompany.com), and

I’ll be using a phone at 192.168.0.1 today!”

192.168.0.1
Registrar

AoR → Contact Map:

alice@phonecompany.com → alice@192.168.0.1

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Registration, revisited

“Lunch time! Mobile Time!

(alice@phonecompany.com)
will be using 10.0.1.1 now!”

Registrar
10.0.1.1

AoR → Contact Map:

alice@phonecompany.com → alice@10.0.1.1

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

INVITE sip:bob@bigcompany.com SIP/2.0

Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>;tag=ss95cbav
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@aliceua.phonecompany.com
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Max-Forwards: 10
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
…snip!...

(Alice is going to call Bob…)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message
INVITE sip:bob@bigcompany.com SIP/2.0
SIP request, method is INVITE, target is an AoR (for Bob)
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
Via header tracks where it has been (more on this later)
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>; tag=ss95cbav
Message is from Alice, and this is the SIP URL for Alice. The tag is unique
to this call and selected by Alice’s UA
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Alice is trying to contact Bob at his SIP URL (a tag will be selected by
Bob’s UA later
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@aliceua.phonecompany.com
Call-ID is a unique ID to track this particular call (selected by Alice’s UA)
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Used to track which responses go with which messages. Responses to
this invite will also have a CSeq of 1 INVITE
Max-Forwards: 10
Used in routing (more on this later)
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
How to contact Alice directly. Notice this is a contact (has a host)
…snip…
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Calls and Dialogs

  A call is an informal term for communication

between two devices

  A dialog is a more specific term, which defines a

relationship between two UAs for a duration
•  In many ways, this is what most people would think
of as a call
•  Defined by Call-ID, To tag, and From tag
•  Sender selects Call-ID, and From tag
•  Reciever selects To tag

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Transaction
  A transaction defines a particular operation that is
carried out between the endpoints
•  Example: (INVITE) Set up the call, (BYE) end the call

  Includes all responses (including the ACK)

  May be several transactions within a dialog
  Each transaction uses a new CSeq
•  Command Sequence
•  Chosen by the initiator of the transaction
•  Each side must increase the CSeq for each new
transaction they initiate – no specified starting point
•  But since some transactions are initiated by each side,
within a call it might look out of order

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
 Dialogs and Transactions
SIP Server

INVITE
INVITE
100 Trying
Transaction 1

180 Ringing
180 Ringing
200 OK
Dialog/Call

200 OK
ACK
ACK
Bi-directional Media between endpoints
Transaction 2

BYE
BYE

200 OK
200 OK
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Routing
The Complex Reality

SIP SIP SIP SIP SIP

Proxy Proxy Proxy Proxy Proxy
A SIP B SIP C SIP D SIP N

SIP Internet (or WAN) SIP

Media Media
Alice Proxy Proxy Bob
Media A Media B Media

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Routing

  Each entity forwards message along path to

reach destination
•  Places next destination into Request-URI (top line)
•  Adds themselves as another Via
•  Max-Forwards is decremented to prevent loops and
limit the length of path
•  if it reaches 0, the message isn’t forwarded again

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

INVITE sip:bob@bigcompany.com SIP/2.0

Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>;tag=ss95cbav
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@aliceua.phonecompany.com
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Max-Forwards: 10
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
…snip!...

Let’s see what happens as this message

passes through the big company proxy on the
way to Bob…

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

INVITE sip:bob@bobua.bigcompany.com SIP/2.0

Via: SIP/2.0/TCP proxy.bigcompany.com:5060
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>;tag=ss95cbav
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@aliceua.phonecompany.com
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Record-Route: <sip:proxy.bigcompany.com;lr>
Max-Forwards: 9
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
…snip!...
Notice the new URI, added VIA, and
decremented Max-Forwards. This message is
forwarded to Bob’s UA.

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Routing Responses

  When Bob’s UA responds, it “unrolls” the Via

headers to decide where to route the responses

  The response traces the path back, sending the

response to the Via address of the entity that
sent the message (responding!)

  That entity removes itself from the Via and

passes the message along, unrolling until it
reaches the sender

  Notice that the proxy needs no state here

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

INVITE sip:bob@bobua.bigcompany.com SIP/2.0

Via: SIP/2.0/TCP proxy.bigcompany.com:5060
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>;tag=ss95cbav
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@aliceua.phonecompany.com
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Record-Route: <sip:proxy.bigcompany.com;lr>
Max-Forwards: 9
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
…snip!...

But one more here. What is record route?

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Record Route

  Once a UA has the address of the other UA

in the call, new messages can be sent
directly between devices if they wish

  Record route is a way for a proxy to request

“keep me in the loop”
•  Ensures that future transactions include this proxy,
rather than going directly to the other UA

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Forking
Forking

  While somewhat complicated, many features

require “forking”
•  Send a message to more than one entity Need to
track (and manage both sides)

  Parallel forking (send to more than one at a

time)
•  Ring both desk and mobile at once, cancel the call
to whichever fails to pickup

  Can also use redirection (sequential)

•  Ring desk phone, then try mobile if no answer

  Can combine
•  Ring desk phone and mobile, then VM if no answer

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Parallel Forking

time a
SIP Server Desk Phone

Caller time a

Two devices are tried at the same Mobile

time, time a

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Sequential Forking

time a
SIP Server Desk Phone

Caller time b

One device is tried at time a, then Voice Mail

another at time b

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Parallel & Sequential Forking

Desk Phone
time a

SIP Server time a

Mobile Phone

Caller
time b

Several devices are tried in

parallel at time a, then forked to
Voice Mail
another at time b

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking & PSTN Interconnection
Gateways

  How about connecting to the outside world?

•  If you want to talk to another SIP user, your proxy
may know how to contact that user’s proxy directly,
and the call is all SIP
•  To call out to a regular phone (or to have calls come
in) you use a gateway. It connects to one or more
regular phone lines to let you receive and place calls
to old fashioned “Plain Old Telephone
Service” (POTS)
•  Can also gateway between SIP and other protocols
such as H.323, or to networks such as Skype

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Gateway example

SIP Server

Gateway

SIP/IP network POTS network

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking

  Instead of using a local gateway, use SIP to

connect to a remote gateway at a:
•  Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP)
•  SIP Service Provider
•  (other names)

  Create a “SIP Trunk” out to remote system

•  NOT a physical connection like a TDM trunk. Purely a
virtual connection from your premise system to the IP
address of the ITSP.

  Can be over public Internet or over WAN, dedicated

lines or VPN
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Trunking before SIP

Internet

Carrier PSTN
PBX

Corp HQ 

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking

ITSP

Internet
PBX

PSTN

Corp HQ 

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking – Multiple ITSPs

ITSP 1

Internet
PBX
ITSP 2
PSTN

Corp HQ 

ITSP 3

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking - Failover

PBX
ITSP

Corp HQ 
Internet PSTN

PBX

Office 
A 

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking - Geography

ITSP
(Boston)

Internet
PBX ITSP
(Paris)
PSTN

Corp HQ 

ITSP
(Tokyo)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP Trunking - SIPconnect

  Initiative of the
SIP Forum to increase
interoperabilty between on-premise systems
and SIP service providers

  Idea is that a “SIPconnect-compliant” IP-PBX

will more easily be able to connect to a
“SIPconnect-compliant” SIP service provider

  http://www.sipforum.org/sipconnect

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
The Many Protocols Used In SIP
The (Many) Protocols in a “SIP” Call

UA UA
SIP Server
SIP/SDP SIP/SDP

Media (RTP/RTCP)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SIP, SDP, and RTP

  SIP is only a part of the picture

  SIP is used to establish the multimedia
session
  SIP messages don’t describe the type of
media themselves
•  Embed another protocol called SDP

  Yet another protocol, RTP (and RTCP), is

used to actually stream the media between
the devices

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Codecs (encoding)

  The media that flows using RTP is encoded

using a codec
  Codec is about how the audio has been
converted to packets
•  Example: g.711, g.729, GIPS
•  In general, higher quality = more network bandwidth
•  Codec to be used, and any parameters to be used are
described in SDP

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
SDP/RTP

  Both of these are older IETF protocols used by

SIP
•  IETF tries to promote reuse whenever possible

  Session Description Protocol

•  Used by SIP to describe the media format, encoding,
destination, etc.
•  Included in SIP message as a payload

  Real-time Transport Protocol

•  Used to transport the encoded media across the wire
•  Can be used for media other than voice

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

INVITE sip:bob@bigcompany.com SIP/2.0

Via: SIP/2.0/TCP aliceua.phonecompany.com:5060
From: Alice <sip:alice@phonecompany.com>; tag=ss95cbav
To: Bob <sip:bob@bigcompany.com>
Call-ID: 3848276298220188511@alicaua.phonecompany.com
CSeq: 1 INVITE
Contact: <sip:alice@aliceua.phonecompany.com;transport=tcp>
Content-Type: application/sdp
Content-Length: 134

v=0
o=CogentForce-UA 10010 605 IN IP4 aliceua.phonecompany.com
s=SIP Call
c=IN IP4 192.0.1.1
t=0 0
m=audio 49172 RTP/AVP 0 8 16

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
INVITE message

<snip!>
Content-Type: application/sdp
Content-Length: 134
The content of the message is SDP – to describe the media of the
call. We have 134 bytes of SDP
v=0
v is the SDP version number -- 0
o=CogentForce-UA 10010 605 IN IP4 aliceua.phonecompany.com
o is a description of the UA and a session ID
s=SIP Call
s is an string to encode a name for this session
c=IN IP4 192.0.1.1
c tells the other side what address to send the media to
t=0 0
t indicates start and end times. 0 and 0 don’t specify times in advance
m=audio 49172 RTP/AVP 0 8 16
m describes the media. We are listening for audio of type
RTP/AVP on port 49172
©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Offer/Answer

  Different UAs may support different codecs

  Calling UA lists what it supports and is willing to
use in the INVITE message SDP
  Called UA responds with the subset of that it is
willing to use in the response SDP (200 OK)
  If nothing in common, can’t communicate and
call is rejected
  Mechanisms exist to change this mid call (for
example, switching from audio to video)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Instant Messaging / SIMPLE
 Instant Message and Presence

  SIP has a set of extensions called

SIMPLE
•  SIMPLE: SIP for Instant Messaging
(IM) and Presence Leveraging
Extensions
•  Send text messages between devices
•  Can switch between text and voice
•  session is all SIP
•  Presence (ability to see “status” of
other user) is also supported (and
persistent on server)
•  Idle, Offline, Available, Busy, Offline
till Monday…

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Instant Message and Presence

  MESSAGE method used to send text

messages
  SUBSCRIBE to express an interest,
“subscribe” to someone’s status
  PUBLISH to change your status on the
presence server

  NOTIFY is send from server to those who

have subscribed

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Extending SIP
  SIMPLE isn’t the only extension

  SIP was designed from the beginning to be highly extensible

  Can add new methods, new responses, headers

  Groups in the RAI (Realtime Applications and Infrastructure)

area at IETF determine what is really an accepted “standard”
extension
•  SIPCORE, DISPATCH, SIMPLE, and others

  Many vendors add non-interoperable “extensions” to SIP

•  These may not work across different vendor platforms

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
NAT / Firewall Traversal
NAT/FW Traversal

  SIP has traditionally had some trouble getting

through firewalls (FWs) and Network Address
Translators (NATs)

  Two major causes

•  NATs use “private” IP addresses, not routable from
the outside
•  SIP embeds these, outside entity has no way to respond
•  SIP and RTP (the media) are on different “ports”
•  Each requires a specific forwarding through the firewall to
work and must be opened separately

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Firewalls and Media

A UA Contacts
another UA (or a
proxy), sending SIP
messages.
The process of
sending the
message (on most
NATs/FWs) creates
a mapping that
allows responses to
reach the sender
SIP

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Firewalls and Media

Media (RTP) is on a
different port
(different opening in
the FW) than SIP
It is possible that at
the time the media
is sent, it is rejected
by the firewall

RTP

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
NAT/FW Traversal

  Several Solutions
•  IETF efforts
•  STUN, TURN and ICE
•  Query outside servers to find out “public” address
•  Can use media relays to help get media between two hosts
behind firewalls
•  Session Border Controllers (SBCs)
•  Sit near (or in) the firewall/NAT, rewrite the internals of the
packets, work with firewall to open ports

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Session Border Controllers

  Implemented either as special firewall/ALG that

modify the packets (deep-packet inspection) or as a
B2BUA
•  B2BUA can be thought of as a special SIP-to-SIP gateway
or as two UAs “glued together”, where each side is a
separate call

  Can be used for

•  NAT Traversal
•  Protocol “correction”
•  Demarcation point
•  Codec translation

  Generally handles both media and signalling

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Session Border Controller

SIP Server SIP Server

Session Border Controller

(SBC)

SIP/IP network SIP/IP network

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Peer-To-Peer SIP
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) SIP

  Alternate way to deliver SIP

  Basic idea – reduce or completely eliminate

the central servers (proxy/softswitch)

  Most or all functionality is moved to the UA

  Highly scalable, so good for very small
deployments (no infrastructure) and
internet-wide deployments

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Client/Server Session

In a Client/Server session, two nodes

must use a central server to
communicate

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
P2P Session

In a Peer-to-Peer session, when two

nodes communicate, a few other nodes,
rather than a central server, help
complete the call

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Distributed Systems
 Home Teleworkers
7.1 

PC

UC Home
System
Firewall Internet Firewall

IP
Corp HQ  Phone
Home 

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Mobile Workers

Laptop
UC
client
WiFi
UC
System
Firewall Internet Café
Router

Corp HQ 
Mobile
Data
Network Mobile
UC
client

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Intra-company and Cloud

Corporate
Internet
Network

IVR Voicemail
IM IM IM

Presence Presence Presence

Call Call Call

Control Control Control

Corp HQ  Office A  Office B 

PSTN

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Inter-company Federation

Internet

Corporate Corporate
Network Network

UC UC UC UC
System System System System

Corp HQ  Office A  Corp HQ  Office A 

Company A  Company B 

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Resources
Some Good SIP Webpages

  Tech-Invite (www.tech-invite.com) is a great source for general SIP

information with many beautiful color illustrations

  SIP Forum has many links to more info (www.sipforum.org)

  RFC 5411, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to SIP”

(tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5411)

  SIP Tutorial at iptel.org, (www.iptel.org/tutorial)

  IETF information can be found at www.ietf.org and www.softarmor.com

  P2PSIP.org (www.p2psip.org) is the community site for P2PSIP

  “Speaking of Standards” blog (blogs.voxeo.com/speakingofstandards)

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Books on SIP

  Internet Communications Using SIP, Henry

Sinnreich and Alan B. Johnston, Wiley Networking
Council Series, 2006 (second edition)

  SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation

Protocol, Alan B. Johnston, Artech House, 2004
  SIP Beyond VoIP, Henry Sinnreich, Alan B.
Johnston and Robert J. Sparks, VON Publishing,
2005

  SIP Demystified, Gonzalo Camarillo, McGraw-Hill

Telecom Series, 2002

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation
Acknowledge/Thanks

  Thanks to those who have worked on SIP

over the years, presented SIP tutorials, or
written SIP books!

©© Voxeo
Voxeo Corporation (www.v o x e o .com) and David Bryan (www.e t h e r n o t .org)
Corporation