12. Dialogs

12 Dialogs

A key concept for a user agent is that of a dialog. A dialog represents a peer-to-peer SIP relationship between two user agents that persists for some time. The dialog facilitates sequencing of messages between the user agents and proper routing of requests between both of them. The dialog represents a context in which to interpret SIP messages. Section 8 discussed method independent UA processing for requests and responses outside of a dialog. This section discusses how those requests and responses are used to construct a dialog, and then how subsequent requests and responses are sent within a dialog.

A dialog is identified at each UA with a dialog ID, which consists of a Call-ID value, a local tag and a remote tag. The dialog ID at each UA involved in the dialog is not the same. Specifically, the local tag at one UA is identical to the remote tag at the peer UA. The tags are opaque tokens that facilitate the generation of unique dialog IDs.

A dialog ID is also associated with all responses and with any request that contains a tag in the To field. The rules for computing the dialog ID of a message depend on whether the SIP element is a UAC or UAS. For a UAC, the Call-ID value of the dialog ID is set to the Call-ID of the message, the remote tag is set to the tag in the To field of the message, and the local tag is set to the tag in the From field of the message (these rules apply to both requests and responses). As one would expect for a UAS, the Call-ID value of the dialog ID is set to the Call-ID of the message, the remote tag is set to the tag in the From field of the message, and the local tag is set to the tag in the To field of the message.

A dialog contains certain pieces of state needed for further message transmissions within the dialog. This state consists of the dialog ID, a local sequence number (used to order requests from the UA to its peer), a remote sequence number (used to order requests from its peer to the UA), a local URI, a remote URI, remote target, a boolean flag called "secure", and a route set, which is an ordered list of URIs. The route set is the list of servers that need to be traversed to send a request to the peer. A dialog can also be in the "early" state, which occurs when it is created with a provisional response, and then transition to the "confirmed" state when a 2xx final response arrives. For other responses, or if no response arrives at all on that dialog, the early dialog terminates.

12.1 Creation of a Dialog

Dialogs are created through the generation of non-failure responses to requests with specific methods. Within this specification, only 2xx and 101-199 responses with a To tag, where the request was INVITE, will establish a dialog. A dialog established by a non-final response to a request is in the "early" state and it is called an early dialog. Extensions MAY define other means for creating dialogs. Section 13 gives more details that are specific to the INVITE method. Here, we describe the process for creation of dialog state that is not dependent on the method.

UAs MUST assign values to the dialog ID components as described below.

12.1.1 UAS behavior

When a UAS responds to a request with a response that establishes a dialog (such as a 2xx to INVITE), the UAS MUST copy all Record-Route header field values from the request into the response (including the URIs, URI parameters, and any Record-Route header field parameters, whether they are known or unknown to the UAS) and MUST maintain the order of those values. The UAS MUST add a Contact header field to the response. The Contact header field contains an address where the UAS would like to be contacted for subsequent requests in the dialog (which includes the ACK for a 2xx response in the case of an INVITE). Generally, the host portion of this URI is the IP address or FQDN of the host. The URI provided in the Contact header field MUST be a SIP or SIPS URI. If the request that initiated the dialog contained a SIPS URI in the Request-URI or in the top Record-Route header field value, if there was any, or the Contact header field if there was no Record-Route header field, the Contact header field in the response MUST be a SIPS URI. The URI SHOULD have global scope (that is, the same URI can be used in messages outside this dialog). The same way, the scope of the URI in the Contact header field of the INVITE is not limited to this dialog either. It can therefore be used in messages to the UAC even outside this dialog.

The UAS then constructs the state of the dialog. This state MUST be maintained for the duration of the dialog.

If the request arrived over TLS, and the Request-URI contained a SIPS URI, the "secure" flag is set to TRUE.

The route set MUST be set to the list of URIs in the Record-Route header field from the request, taken in order and preserving all URI parameters. If no Record-Route header field is present in the request, the route set MUST be set to the empty set. This route set, even if empty, overrides any pre-existing route set for future requests in this dialog. The remote target MUST be set to the URI from the Contact header field of the request.

The remote sequence number MUST be set to the value of the sequence number in the CSeq header field of the request. The local sequence number MUST be empty. The call identifier component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the value of the Call-ID in the request. The local tag component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the tag in the To field in the response to the request (which always includes a tag), and the remote tag component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the tag from the From field in the request. A UAS MUST be prepared to receive a request without a tag in the From field, in which case the tag is considered to have a value of null.

This is to maintain backwards compatibility with RFC 2543, which did not mandate From tags.

The remote URI MUST be set to the URI in the From field, and the local URI MUST be set to the URI in the To field.

12.1.2 UAC Behavior

When a UAC sends a request that can establish a dialog (such as an INVITE) it MUST provide a SIP or SIPS URI with global scope (i.e., the same SIP URI can be used in messages outside this dialog) in the Contact header field of the request. If the request has a Request- URI or a topmost Route header field value with a SIPS URI, the Contact header field MUST contain a SIPS URI. When a UAC receives a response that establishes a dialog, it constructs the state of the dialog. This state MUST be maintained for the duration of the dialog.

If the request was sent over TLS, and the Request-URI contained a SIPS URI, the "secure" flag is set to TRUE.

The route set MUST be set to the list of URIs in the Record-Route header field from the response, taken in reverse order and preserving all URI parameters. If no Record-Route header field is present in the response, the route set MUST be set to the empty set. This route set, even if empty, overrides any pre-existing route set for future requests in this dialog. The remote target MUST be set to the URI from the Contact header field of the response.

The local sequence number MUST be set to the value of the sequence number in the CSeq header field of the request. The remote sequence number MUST be empty (it is established when the remote UA sends a request within the dialog). The call identifier component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the value of the Call-ID in the request. The local tag component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the tag in the From field in the request, and the remote tag component of the dialog ID MUST be set to the tag in the To field of the response. A UAC MUST be prepared to receive a response without a tag in the To field, in which case the tag is considered to have a value of null.

This is to maintain backwards compatibility with RFC 2543, which did not mandate To tags.

The remote URI MUST be set to the URI in the To field, and the local URI MUST be set to the URI in the From field.

12.2 Requests within a Dialog

Once a dialog has been established between two UAs, either of them MAY initiate new transactions as needed within the dialog. The UA sending the request will take the UAC role for the transaction. The UA receiving the request will take the UAS role. Note that these may be different roles than the UAs held during the transaction that established the dialog.

Requests within a dialog MAY contain Record-Route and Contact header fields. However, these requests do not cause the dialog's route set to be modified, although they may modify the remote target URI. Specifically, requests that are not target refresh requests do not modify the dialog's remote target URI, and requests that are target refresh requests do. For dialogs that have been established with an INVITE, the only target refresh request defined is re-INVITE (see Section 14). Other extensions may define different target refresh requests for dialogs established in other ways.

Note that an ACK is NOT a target refresh request.

Target refresh requests only update the dialog's remote target URI, and not the route set formed from the Record-Route. Updating the latter would introduce severe backwards compatibility problems with RFC 2543-compliant systems.

12.2.1 UAC Behavior

12.2.1.1 Generating the Request

A request within a dialog is constructed by using many of the components of the state stored as part of the dialog.

The URI in the To field of the request MUST be set to the remote URI from the dialog state. The tag in the To header field of the request MUST be set to the remote tag of the dialog ID. The From URI of the request MUST be set to the local URI from the dialog state. The tag in the From header field of the request MUST be set to the local tag of the dialog ID. If the value of the remote or local tags is null, the tag parameter MUST be omitted from the To or From header fields, respectively.

Usage of the URI from the To and From fields in the original request within subsequent requests is done for backwards compatibility with RFC 2543, which used the URI for dialog identification. In this specification, only the tags are used for dialog identification. It is expected that mandatory reflection of the original To and From URI in mid-dialog requests will be deprecated in a subsequent revision of this specification.

The Call-ID of the request MUST be set to the Call-ID of the dialog. Requests within a dialog MUST contain strictly monotonically increasing and contiguous CSeq sequence numbers (increasing-by-one) in each direction (excepting ACK and CANCEL of course, whose numbers equal the requests being acknowledged or cancelled). Therefore, if the local sequence number is not empty, the value of the local sequence number MUST be incremented by one, and this value MUST be placed into the CSeq header field. If the local sequence number is empty, an initial value MUST be chosen using the guidelines of Section 8.1.1.5. The method field in the CSeq header field value MUST match the method of the request. With a length of 32 bits, a client could generate, within a single call, one request a second for about 136 years before needing to wrap around. The initial value of the sequence number is chosen so that subsequent requests within the same call will not wrap around. A non-zero initial value allows clients to use a time- based initial sequence number. A client could, for example, choose the 31 most significant bits of a 32-bit second clock as an initial sequence number.

The UAC uses the remote target and route set to build the Request-URI and Route header field of the request.

If the route set is empty, the UAC MUST place the remote target URI into the Request-URI. The UAC MUST NOT add a Route header field to the request.

If the route set is not empty, and the first URI in the route set contains the lr parameter (see Section 19.1.1), the UAC MUST place the remote target URI into the Request-URI and MUST include a Route header field containing the route set values in order, including all parameters.

If the route set is not empty, and its first URI does not contain the lr parameter, the UAC MUST place the first URI from the route set into the Request-URI, stripping any parameters that are not allowed in a Request-URI. The UAC MUST add a Route header field containing the remainder of the route set values in order, including all parameters. The UAC MUST then place the remote target URI into the Route header field as the last value.

For example, if the remote target is sip:user@remoteua and the route set contains:

      `<sip:proxy1>`,`<sip:proxy2>`,`<sip:proxy3;lr>`,`<sip:proxy4>`

The request will be formed with the following Request-URI and Route header field:

METHOD sip:proxy1 Route: <sip:proxy2>,<sip:proxy3;lr>,<sip:proxy4>,<sip:user@remoteua>

If the first URI of the route set does not contain the lr parameter, the proxy indicated does not understand the routing mechanisms described in this document and will act as specified in RFC 2543, replacing the Request-URI with the first Route header field value it receives while forwarding the message. Placing the Request-URI at the end of the Route header field preserves the information in that Request-URI across the strict router (it will be returned to the Request-URI when the request reaches a loose- router).

A UAC SHOULD include a Contact header field in any target refresh requests within a dialog, and unless there is a need to change it, the URI SHOULD be the same as used in previous requests within the dialog. If the "secure" flag is true, that URI MUST be a SIPS URI. As discussed in Section 12.2.2, a Contact header field in a target refresh request updates the remote target URI. This allows a UA to provide a new contact address, should its address change during the duration of the dialog.

However, requests that are not target refresh requests do not affect the remote target URI for the dialog.

The rest of the request is formed as described in Section 8.1.1.

Once the request has been constructed, the address of the server is computed and the request is sent, using the same procedures for requests outside of a dialog (Section 8.1.2).

The procedures in Section 8.1.2 will normally result in the request being sent to the address indicated by the topmost Route header field value or the Request-URI if no Route header field is present. Subject to certain restrictions, they allow the request to be sent to an alternate address (such as a default outbound proxy not represented in the route set).

12.2.1.2 Processing the Responses

The UAC will receive responses to the request from the transaction layer. If the client transaction returns a timeout, this is treated as a 408 (Request Timeout) response.

The behavior of a UAC that receives a 3xx response for a request sent within a dialog is the same as if the request had been sent outside a dialog. This behavior is described in Section 8.1.3.4.

Note, however, that when the UAC tries alternative locations, it still uses the route set for the dialog to build the Route header of the request.

When a UAC receives a 2xx response to a target refresh request, it MUST replace the dialog's remote target URI with the URI from the Contact header field in that response, if present. If the response for a request within a dialog is a 481 (Call/Transaction Does Not Exist) or a 408 (Request Timeout), the UAC SHOULD terminate the dialog. A UAC SHOULD also terminate a dialog if no response at all is received for the request (the client transaction would inform the TU about the timeout.)

For INVITE initiated dialogs, terminating the dialog consists of sending a BYE.

12.2.2 UAS Behavior

Requests sent within a dialog, as any other requests, are atomic. If a particular request is accepted by the UAS, all the state changes associated with it are performed. If the request is rejected, none of the state changes are performed.

Note that some requests, such as INVITEs, affect several pieces of state.

The UAS will receive the request from the transaction layer. If the request has a tag in the To header field, the UAS core computes the dialog identifier corresponding to the request and compares it with existing dialogs. If there is a match, this is a mid-dialog request. In that case, the UAS first applies the same processing rules for requests outside of a dialog, discussed in Section 8.2.

If the request has a tag in the To header field, but the dialog identifier does not match any existing dialogs, the UAS may have crashed and restarted, or it may have received a request for a different (possibly failed) UAS (the UASs can construct the To tags so that a UAS can identify that the tag was for a UAS for which it is providing recovery). Another possibility is that the incoming request has been simply misrouted. Based on the To tag, the UAS MAY either accept or reject the request. Accepting the request for acceptable To tags provides robustness, so that dialogs can persist even through crashes. UAs wishing to support this capability must take into consideration some issues such as choosing monotonically increasing CSeq sequence numbers even across reboots, reconstructing the route set, and accepting out-of-range RTP timestamps and sequence numbers.

If the UAS wishes to reject the request because it does not wish to recreate the dialog, it MUST respond to the request with a 481 (Call/Transaction Does Not Exist) status code and pass that to the server transaction. Requests that do not change in any way the state of a dialog may be received within a dialog (for example, an OPTIONS request). They are processed as if they had been received outside the dialog.

If the remote sequence number is empty, it MUST be set to the value of the sequence number in the CSeq header field value in the request. If the remote sequence number was not empty, but the sequence number of the request is lower than the remote sequence number, the request is out of order and MUST be rejected with a 500 (Server Internal Error) response. If the remote sequence number was not empty, and the sequence number of the request is greater than the remote sequence number, the request is in order. It is possible for the CSeq sequence number to be higher than the remote sequence number by more than one. This is not an error condition, and a UAS SHOULD be prepared to receive and process requests with CSeq values more than one higher than the previous received request. The UAS MUST then set the remote sequence number to the value of the sequence number in the CSeq header field value in the request.

If a proxy challenges a request generated by the UAC, the UAC has to resubmit the request with credentials. The resubmitted request will have a new CSeq number. The UAS will never see the first request, and thus, it will notice a gap in the CSeq number space. Such a gap does not represent any error condition.

When a UAS receives a target refresh request, it MUST replace the dialog's remote target URI with the URI from the Contact header field in that request, if present.

12.3 Termination of a Dialog

Independent of the method, if a request outside of a dialog generates a non-2xx final response, any early dialogs created through provisional responses to that request are terminated. The mechanism for terminating confirmed dialogs is method specific. In this specification, the BYE method terminates a session and the dialog associated with it. See Section 15 for details.