Question

Looking for the right format of SIP keepalive message

Asked by: afikim

Hello

There is a VOIP application I write.  I need to send once in a few seconds a SIP message just to check the the other side is available and functioning.

The message can be a dummy one just to let the other side to reply with "OK".

I cannot use the received RTP messages as an indicator.  

Your comments please.

Thanks
Eli

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Asked On
2009-08-08 at 22:04:25ID24637773
Tags

SIP

,

Keepalive

,

voip

Topics

Voice Over IP

,

IP PBX Systems

,

Asterisk Open Source Telephony

Participating Experts
1
Points
250
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: feptiasPosted on 2009-08-09 at 09:35:30ID: 25054735

This is normally done using the SIP NOTIFY or OPTIONS requests:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/SIP+method+options
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/SIP+method+notify

You should receive a 2xx response back from the other device. If you need more details about SIP methods, requests and responses, try this link:
http://rfc-ref.org/RFC-TEXTS/3261/chapter7.html

 

by: afikimPosted on 2009-08-09 at 13:09:56ID: 25055726

Hello Feptias

I tried the Notify method.  But always I get a wrong response or no response.   INFO nethod yields the same.
Can you write a simple example for a NOTIFY message?

Thanks
Eli


 

by: feptiasPosted on 2009-08-09 at 14:04:00ID: 25055963

It would look a bit like this (based loosely on the keep-alive packets sent by a Linksys IP phone):
NOTIFY sip:<target_uri> SIP/2.0
Via: SIP/2.0/UDP <senders_ip:port>;branch=...
From: "afikim" <sip:<your_number>@<your_sip_domain>>
To: <sip:<target_uri_domain>>
Call-ID: <a_unique_id_string>
CSeq: <Seq_num> NOTIFY
Event: keep-alive
Content-Length: 0

Also try googling on a utility called "sip_ping" or possibly "sip_ping.pl". I think it comes from a book called "VoIP Hacks" published by O'Reilly. That solution uses OPTIONS.

 

by: afikimPosted on 2009-08-09 at 21:33:07ID: 25057182

Hi Feptias

Same as before with my INFO message, I get a reply of "Status: 481 Subscription Does Not Exist".

Thanks

Eli

 

by: feptiasPosted on 2009-08-10 at 00:17:41ID: 25057687

The response you get back will depend on the device that you are pinging. Remember too that even a 481 response tells you that the remote device is listening and responding - you can't really expect much more than that. If the remote device has a problem, then it is unlikely it will be able to tell you.

 

by: afikimPosted on 2009-08-10 at 00:25:59ID: 31613361

Thanks for your help

I was expecting a "200 OK" reply.  But as you wrote, as long as the client responds it is satisfactory

Thanks again

Eli

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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