0101 Processing Responses

Responses are first processed by the transport layer and then passed

   up to the transaction layer.  The transaction layer performs its

   processing and then passes the response up to the TU.  The majority

   of response processing in the TU is method specific.  However, there

   are some general behaviors independent of the method.

 

Transaction Layer Errors

   In some cases, the response returned by the transaction layer will

   not be a SIP message, but rather a transaction layer error.  When a

   timeout error is received from the transaction layer, it MUST be

   treated as if a 408 (Request Timeout) status code has been received.

   If a fatal transport error is reported by the transport layer

   (generally, due to fatal ICMP errors in UDP or connection failures in

   TCP), the condition MUST be treated as a 503 (Service Unavailable)

   status code.

 

Unrecognized Responses

   A UAC MUST treat any final response it does not recognize as being

   equivalent to the x00 response code of that class, and MUST be able

   to process the x00 response code for all classes.  For example, if a

   UAC receives an unrecognized response code of 431, it can safely

   assume that there was something wrong with its request and treat the

   response as if it had received a 400 (Bad Request) response code.  A

   UAC MUST treat any provisional response different than 100 that it

   does not recognize as 183 (Session Progress).  A UAC MUST be able to

   process 100 and 183 responses.