SIP Tutorial on SIP Response Codes

a sip response is a message generated by a user agent server (uas) or sip server to reply a request generated by a client. it could be a formal acknowledgement to prevent retransmission of requests by a uac.

  • a response may contain some additional header fields of info needed by a uac.

  • sip has six responses.

  • 1xx to 5xx has been borrowed from http and 6xx is introduced in sip.

  • 1xx is considered as a provisional response and the rest are final responses.

s.no. function & description
1 1xx: provisional/informational responses

informational responses are used to indicate call progress. normally the responses are end to end (except 100 trying).

2 2xx: success responses

this class of responses is meant for indicating that a request has been accepted.

3 3xx: redirect responses

generally these class responses are sent by redirect servers in response to invite. they are also known as redirect class responses.

4 4xx: client failure responses

client error responses indicate that the request cannot be fulfilled as some errors are identified from the uac side.

5 5xx: server failure response

this class response is used to indicate that the request cannot be processed because of an error with the server.

6 6xx: global failure response

this response class indicates that the server knows that the request will fail wherever it is tried. as a result, the request should not be sent to other locations.