SIP uses Methods / Requests and corresponding Responses to communicate and establish a call session.
SIP requests
There are fourteen SIP Request methods of which the first six are the most basic request / method types:
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INVITE = Establishes a session.
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ACK = Confirms an INVITE request.
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BYE = Ends a session.
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CANCEL = Cancels establishing of a session.
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REGISTER = Communicates user location (host name, IP).
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OPTIONS = Communicates information about the capabilities of the calling and receiving SIP phones.
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PRACK = Provisional Acknowledgement.
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SUBSCRIBE = Subscribes for Notification from the notifier.
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NOTIFY = Notifies the subscriber of a new event.
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PUBLISH = Publishes an event to the Server.
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INFO = Sends mid session information.
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REFER = Asks the recipient to issue call transfer.
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MESSAGE = Transports Instant Messages.
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UPDATE = Modifies the state of a session.
SIP responses
SIP Requests are answered with SIP responses, of which there are six classes:
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1xx = Informational responses, such as 180 (ringing).
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2xx = Success responses.
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3xx = Redirection responses.
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4XX = Request failures.
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5xx = Server errors.
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6xx = Global failures.