The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling communications protocol used to establish, modify, and terminate multimedia communication sessions over IP networks. These sessions can involve Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, and other real-time applications.
SIP is based on a request–response transaction model, similar to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Each transaction consists of a SIP request—chosen from a defined set of request methods—and at least one corresponding response. [1] : p11 The protocol is text-based and human-readable, which simplifies debugging, development, and interoperability with other Internet protocols.
Beyond basic session setup and teardown, SIP supports features such as user location (finding the endpoint of a participant), user availability (determining willingness to engage in communication), and session management (including call transfer and termination). These capabilities make SIP a foundational component of modern IP-based communication systems.
SIP requests and responses may be generated by any SIP user agent; user agents are divided into clients (UACs), which initiate requests, and servers (UASes), which respond to them. [1] : §8 A single user agent may act as both UAC and UAS for different transactions: [1] : p26 for example, a SIP phone is a user agent that will be a UAC when making a call, and a UAS when receiving one. Additionally, some devices will act as both UAC and UAS for a single transaction; these are called Back-to-Back User Agents (B2BUAs). [1] : p20
SIP responses specify a three-digit integer response code, which is one of a number of defined codes that detail the status of the request. These codes are grouped according to their first digit as "provisional", "success", "redirection", "client error", "server error" or "global failure" codes, corresponding to a first digit of 1–6; these are expressed as, for example, "1xx" for provisional responses with a code of 100–199. [1] : §7.2 The SIP response codes are consistent with the HTTP response codes, although not all HTTP response codes are valid in SIP. [1] : §21
SIP responses also specify a "reason phrase", and a default reason phrase is defined with each response code. [1] : §7.2 These reason phrases can be varied, however, such as to provide additional information [1] : §21.4.18 or to provide the text in a different language. [1] : §20.3
The SIP response codes and corresponding reason phrases were initially defined in RFC 3261. [1] That RFC also defines a SIP Parameters Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) registry to allow other RFC to provide more response codes. [1] : §27 [2]
This list includes all the SIP response codes defined in IETF RFCs and registered in the SIP Parameters IANA registry as of 27 January 2023 [update] . This list also includes SIP response codes defined in obsolete SIP RFCs (specifically, RFC 2543), which are therefore not registered with the IANA; these are explicitly noted as such.
SIP responses may also include an optional Warning header, containing additional details about the response. The Warning contains a separate three-digit code followed by text with more details about the warning. [1] : §20.43 The current list of official warnings is registered in the SIP Parameters IANA registry.