I can see it’s registered, but when I call it it’s not ringing, what’s wrong?
Support team
It’s a question I get every so often, and it generally comes down to a misunderstanding in the way the SIP Register mechanism works.
When a UA registers to a SIP server it includes an “Expires:” header, which means it’s registration will expire after that time.
It doesn’t mean it’ll be active that whole time, just that for the time specified it intends to be at that address, but life, and networks, often have other plans.
Let’s jump out of SIP for a minute and imagine you’re going to give me a package, I leave you a note saying:
I’ll be waiting outside the station in a trench-coat under the lamp post between 7:00 and 7:15
You get there at 7:12 but you can’t deliver the package. I’m nowhere to be seen.
The note I left says I’ll be there during that time, but I’ve disappeared, and no you can’t hand the package to me.
Just because you have a note saying I’ll be there, doesn’t mean I still will be. It was my intention to be there, but I’m obviously not.
The SIP register is the same as the note left on the desk. I intended to be there, but I’m now obviously not, and I haven’t had a way to reach you to let you know this has changed, or I myself don’t know.
You see this in SIP from time to time, generally it’s due to the connection the UA is coming from dropping or it’s public IP changing.
For example, a REGISTER is sent with an Expires of 3600 seconds (An hour) to a SIP switch from IP address 1.2.3.4.
Half an hour later your connection drops.
As far as the SIP switch is concerned it’s going to send any incoming messages to 1.2.3.4, as 1.2.3.4 said it’d be there for the next hour.
So even though the connection is dropped to 1.2.3.4 the SIP Switch has no way of knowing this and continues to forward any traffic for that user to 1.2.3.4 until the 3600 seconds is up since it last tried to REGISTER.
Same thing could happen if our UA is behind a NAT and the external IP changes or the connection is changed. The UA doesn’t know anything has changed, so no REGISTER is sent to refresh, and messages from the SIP server are sent to the old address.
A lot of SIP switching platforms allow you to view register status, but just keep in mind it doesn’t mean the device is still answerable at that address, only that it intended to be.
Further reading:
Thank you very much to clarify this point, topics in troubleshooting like this are very important.