SIP message prioritization and its applications

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling is an integral part of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to support services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), multimedia sessions, presence, and instant messaging (IM). All of these services share a common SIP signaling infrastructure. In spite of careful network engineering, SIP network elements may experience high-load situations, in which SIP messages may experience too much delay or even get dropped. This paper addresses how such undesired high-load situations can be handled effectively by introducing a message prioritization mechanism in SIP servers. To validate the mechanism, it has been implemented in a high-performance JAIN^∗-SIP-compliant Java^∗ SIP stack. This SIP stack incorporates several other innovations, such as a very efficient SIP message parser, and it can be used for a variety of SIP-based applications. Its design enables service providers to define custom message prioritization and rejection strategies based on SIP message characteristics, system state, and statistics. Measurements show that high-priority emergency messages can indeed be serviced without significant delay or loss in a high-load situation. The concept of and techniques for SIP prioritization are the subjects of a Lucent Technologies patent application.