# US 9,432,239 B2 · End-point identifiers in SIP

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- Number: US 9,432,239 B2
- Document ID: US9432239B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 13/847,280
- Filed: 2013-03-19
- Published: 2014-02-06
- Granted: 2016-08-30
- Earliest claimed: 2003-03-12
- Assignees: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Applicants: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Inventors: Sean C. Olson; Jeremy T. Buch; Ajay P. Chitturi; David J. Simons; Nikhil P. Bobde
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9432239B2

## CPC

- H04L 61/00: Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
- H04L 61/30: Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames (name-to-address mapping H04L61/45)
- H04L 61/50: Address allocation
- H04L 65/1104: Session initiation protocol [SIP]
- H04L 2101/385: Uniform resource identifier for session initiation protocol [SIP URI]
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

A system and method for uniquely identifying an SIP device extends the SIP communications protocol with an end point identifier, carried for example in the header of an SIP transmission. The end point identifier is useful for routing, registration, subscription, and authentication. The end point (device) of a given user epid can be uniquely identified by creating a key from an epid and a user's address-of-record (URI). This in turn enables improved connection management and security association management when the connections/IP addresses are transient, such as when HTTPS tunneling is used.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
receiving a Session Initiation Protocol compliant request at a receiving endpoint from a transmitting endpoint, the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request including an endpoint identifier and user information, wherein a combination of the endpoint identifier and the user information uniquely identifies the transmitting endpoint within a network independently of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request is constructed at the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the endpoint identifier is an encoded string representing a hardware address of the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the request is associated with a SIP method selected from the group of methods consisting of:
REGISTER;
SUBSCRIBE;
NOTIFY;
BYE;
ACK;
CANCEL;
INVITE;
REFER;
MESSAGE;
INFO;
OPTIONS;
PRACK;
UPDATE; and
PUBLISH.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the endpoint identifier is generated by a registrar remote from the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising, after receiving the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request, transmitting subsequent communications from the receiving endpoint to the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting endpoint is among a plurality of endpoints associated with the user information.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request is received from the transmitting endpoint via a proxy server.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the user information includes a uniform resource identifier associated with the user.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a response to the request using a transmission address, wherein the transmission address comprises the endpoint identifier.

### Claim 11

A system comprising:
a transmitting endpoint comprising:
a processing unit;
a memory operatively connected to the processing unit and storing instructions executable on the processing unit, the instructions causing the transmitting endpoint to, when executed:
construct a Session Initiation Protocol compliant request for transmission to a receiving endpoint, the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request including an endpoint identifier and user information, wherein a combination of the endpoint identifier and the user information uniquely identifies the transmitting endpoint within a network independently of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the transmitting endpoint; and
transmit the request to a receiving endpoint.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, further comprising the receiving endpoint positioned remotely from the transmitting endpoint, the receiving endpoint communicatively connected to the transmitting endpoint.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The system of claim 12, further comprising a proxy server communicatively connected between the transmitting endpoint and the receiving endpoint.

### Claim 14 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request includes routing information describing a path between the transmitting endpoint and the receiving endpoint.

### Claim 15 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitting endpoint is further configured to generate the endpoint identifier.

### Claim 16 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitting endpoint comprises a server.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The system of claim 16, wherein the server includes a plurality of network interfaces, and wherein the endpoint identifier is associated with one of the plurality of network interfaces.

### Claim 18 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitting endpoint comprises a client device.

### Claim 19 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the request is transmitted to the receiving endpoint via a HTTPS connection.

### Claim 20

A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computing system acting as a transmitting endpoint, cause the computing system to perform a method comprising:
constructing a Session Initiation Protocol compliant request for transmission to a receiving endpoint, the Session Initiation Protocol compliant request including an endpoint identifier and user information, wherein a combination of the endpoint identifier and the user information uniquely identifies the transmitting endpoint within a network independently of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the transmitting endpoint; and
transmitting the request to a receiving endpoint.