Chapter 1 Product Overview
What is Session Initiation Protocol?
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Cisco SIP IP Phone 7960 Administrator Guide
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SIP provides the capabilities to:
•
Determine the location of the target end point—SIP supports address 
resolution, name mapping, and call redirection.
•
Determine the media capabilities of the target end point—Via Session 
Description Protocol (SDP), SIP determines the “lowest level” of common 
services between the end points. Conferences are established using only the 
media capabilities that can be supported by all end points.
•
Determine the availability of the target end point—If a call cannot be 
completed because the target end point is unavailable, SIP determines 
whether the called party is already on the phone or did not answer in the 
allotted number of rings. It then returns a message indicating why the target 
end point was unavailable.
•
Establish a session between the originating and target end point—If the call 
can be completed, SIP establishes a session between the end points. SIP also 
supports mid-call changes, such as the addition of another end point to the 
conference or the changing of a media characteristic or codec.
•
Handle the transfer and termination of calls—SIP supports the transfer of 
calls from one end point to another. During a call transfer, SIP simply 
establishes a session between the transferee and a new end point (specified by 
the transferring party) and terminates the session between the transferee and 
the transferring party. At the end of a call, SIP terminates the sessions 
between all parties.
Conferences can consist of two or more users and can be established using 
multicast or multiple unicast sessions.
Note
The term conference means an established session (or call) between 
two or more end points. In this document, the terms conference and 
call are used interchangeably.