sl Module

Bogdan Iancu

   FhG FOKUS

Edited by

Bogdan Iancu

   Copyright © 2003 FhG FOKUS
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   Table of Contents
   1. User's Guide

        1.1. Overview
        1.2. Dependencies

              1.2.1. SER Modules
              1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

        1.3. Exported Functions

              1.3.1. sl_send_reply(code, reason)
              1.3.2. sl_reply_error()

   2. Developer's Guide
   3. Frequently Asked Questions

   List of Examples
   1-1. sl_send_reply usage
   1-2. sl_reply_error usage
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Chapter 1. User's Guide

1.1. Overview

   The SL module allows ser to act as a stateless UA server and
   generate replies to SIP requests without keeping state. That
   is beneficial in many scenarios, in which you wish not to
   burden server's memory and scale well.

   The SL module needs to filter ACKs sent after a local
   stateless reply to an INVITE was generated. To recognize such
   ACKs, ser adds a special "signature" in to-tags. This
   signature is sought for in incoming ACKs, and if included, the
   ACKs are absorbed.

   To speed up the filtering process, the module uses a timeout
   mechanism. When a reply is sent, a timer us set. As time as
   the timer is valid, The incoming ACK requests will be checked
   using TO tag value Once the timer expires, all the ACK are let
   through - a long time passed till it sent a reply, so it does
   not expect any ACK that have to be blocked.

   The ACK filtering may fail in some rare cases. If you think
   these matter to you, better use stateful processing (tm
   module) for INVITE processing. Particularly, the problem
   happens when a UA sends an INVITE which already has a to-tag
   in it (e.g., a re-INVITE) and SER want to reply to it. Than,
   it will keep the current to-tag, which will be mirrored in
   ACK. SER will not see its signature and forward the ACK
   downstream. Caused harm is not bad--just a useless ACK is
   forwarded.
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1.2. Dependencies

1.2.1. SER Modules

   The following modules must be loaded before this module:

     * No dependencies on other SER modules.
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1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

   The following libraries or applications must be installed
   before running SER with this module loaded:

     * None.
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1.3. Exported Functions

1.3.1. sl_send_reply(code, reason)

   For the current request, a reply is sent back having the given
   code and text reason. The reply is sent stateless, totally
   independent of the Transaction module and with no
   retransmission for the INVITE's replies.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * code - Return code.
     * reason - Reason phrase.

   Example 1-1. sl_send_reply usage
...
sl_send_reply("404", "Not found");
...
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1.3.2. sl_reply_error()

   Sends back an error reply describing the nature of the last
   internal error. Usually this function should be used after a
   script function that returned an error code.

   Example 1-2. sl_reply_error usage
...
sl_reply_error();
...
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Chapter 2. Developer's Guide

   The module does not provide any sort of API to use in other
   SER modules.
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Chapter 3. Frequently Asked Questions

   3.1. Where can I find more about SER?
   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?
   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   3.1. Where can I find more about SER?

   Take a look at http://iptel.org/ser.

   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?

   First at all check if your question was already answered on
   one of our mailing lists:

     * http://mail.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serusers
     * http://mail.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serdev

   E-mails regarding any stable version should be sent to
   <serusers@iptel.org> and e-mail regarding development versions
   or CVS snapshots should be send to <serdev@iptel.org>.

   If you want to keep the mail private, send it to
   <serhelp@iptel.org>.

   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   Please follow the guidelines provided at:
   http://iptel.org/ser/bugs