Network Working Group J. Rosenberg
Request for Comments: 3725 dynamicsoft
BCP: 85 J. Peterson
Category: Best Current Practice Neustar
H. Schulzrinne
Columbia University
G. Camarillo
Ericsson
April 2004
Best Current Practices for Third Party Call Control (3pcc)
in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
Third party call control refers to the ability of one entity to
create a call in which communication is actually between other
parties. Third party call control is possible using the mechanisms
specified within the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). However,
there are several possible approaches, each with different benefits
and drawbacks. This document discusses best current practices for
the usage of SIP for third party call control.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. 3pcc Call Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1. Flow I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. Flow II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3. Flow III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4. Flow IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. Continued Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8. 3pcc and Early Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Rosenberg, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]RFC 3725 SIP 3pcc April 2004
9. Third Party Call Control and SDP Preconditions . . . . . . . 16
9.1. Controller Initiates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9.2. Party A Initiates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10. Example Call Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10.1. Click-to-Dial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10.2. Mid-Call Announcement Capability . . . . . . . . . . . 23
11. Implementation Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
12. Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12.1. Authorization and Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12.2. End-to-End Encryption and Integrity. . . . . . . . . . 27
13. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
15. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
16. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1. Introduction
In the traditional telephony context, third party call control allows
one entity (which we call the controller) to set up and manage a
communications relationship between two or more other parties. Third
party call control (referred to as 3pcc) is often used for operator
services (where an operator creates a call that connects two
participants together) and conferencing.
Similarly, many SIP services are possible through third party call
control. These include the traditional ones on the PSTN, but also
new ones such as click-to-dial. Click-to-dial allows a user to click
on a web page when they wish to speak to a customer service
representative. The web server then creates a call between the user
and a customer service representative. The call can be between two
phones, a phone and an IP host, or two IP hosts.
Third party call control is possible using only the mechanisms
specified within RFC 3261 [1]. Indeed, many different call flows are
possible, each of which will work with SIP compliant user agents.
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