In some architectures it may be desirable to reduce the processing
load on proxy servers that are responsible for routing requests, and
improve signaling path robustness, by relying on redirection.
Redirection allows servers to push routing information for a request
back in a response to the client, thereby taking themselves out of
the loop of further messaging for this transaction while still aiding
in locating the target of the request. When the originator of the
request receives the redirection, it will send a new request based on
the URI(s) it has received. By propagating URIs from the core of the
network to its edges, redirection allows for considerable network
scalability.
A redirect server is logically constituted of a server transaction
layer and a transaction user that has access to a location service of
some kind (see Section 10 for more on registrars and location
services). This location service is effectively a database
containing mappings between a single URI and a set of one or more
alternative locations at which the target of that URI can be found.