
tm Module

Jiri Kuthan

   FhG FOKUS

Edited by

Jiri Kuthan

   Copyright © 2003 FhG FOKUS
     _________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents
   1. User's Guide

        1.1. Overview
        1.2. Dependencies

              1.2.1. SER Modules
              1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

        1.3. Exported Parameters

              1.3.1. fr_timer (integer)
              1.3.2. fr_inv_timer (integer)
              1.3.3. wt_timer (integer)
              1.3.4. delete_timer (integer)
              1.3.5. retr_timer1p1 (integer)
              1.3.6. retr_timer1p2 (integer)
              1.3.7. retr_timer1p3 (integer)
              1.3.8. retr_timer2 (integer)
              1.3.9. noisy_ctimer (integer)

        1.4. Exported Functions

              1.4.1. t_relay_to(ip, port)
              1.4.2. t_relay()
              1.4.3. t_on_negative(reply_route)
              1.4.4. append_branch()
              1.4.5. t_newtran()
              1.4.6. t_reply(code, reason_phrase)
              1.4.7. t_lookup_request()
              1.4.8. t_retransmit_reply()
              1.4.9. t_release()
              1.4.10. t_forward_nonack(ip, port)
              1.4.11. External Usage of TM
              1.4.12. Known Issues

   2. Developer's Guide

        2.1. Defines
        2.2. Functions

              2.2.1. register_tmcb(cb_type, cb_func)
              2.2.2. load_tm(*import_structure)

   3. Frequently Asked Questions

   List of Examples
   1-1. Set fr_timer parameter
   1-2. Set fr_inv_timer parameter
   1-3. Set wt_timer parameter
   1-4. Set delete_timer parameter
   1-5. Set retr_timer1p1 parameter
   1-6. Set retr_timer1p2 parameter
   1-7. Set retr_timer1p4 parameter
   1-8. Set retr_timer2 parameter
   1-9. Set noisy_ctimer parameter
   1-10. t_relay_to usage
   1-11. t_relay usage
   1-12. t_on_negative usage
   1-13. append_branch usage
   1-14. t_newtran usage
   1-15. t_reply usage
   1-16. t_lookup_request usage
   1-17. t_retransmit_reply usage
   1-18. t_release usage
   1-19. t_forward_nonack usage
     _________________________________________________________

Chapter 1. User's Guide

1.1. Overview

   TM module enables stateful processing of SIP transactions. The
   main use of stateful logic, which is costly in terms of memory
   and CPU, is some services inherently need state. For example,
   transaction-based accounting (module acc) needs to process
   transaction state as opposed to individual messages, and any
   kinds of forking must be implemented statefuly. Other use of
   stateful processing is it trading CPU caused by retransmission
   processing for memory. That makes however only sense if CPU
   consumption per request is huge. For example, if you want to
   avoid costly DNS resolution for every retransmission of a
   request to an unresolveable destination, use stateful mode.
   Then, only the initial message burdens server by DNS queries,
   subsequent retranmissions will be dropped and will not result
   in more processes blocked by DNS resolution. The price is more
   memory consumption and higher processing latency.

   From user's perspective, there are two major functions :
   t_relay and t_relay_to. Both setup transaction state, absorb
   retransmissions from upstream, generate downstream
   retransmissions and correlate replies to requests. t_relay
   forwards to current URI (be it original request's URI or a URI
   changed by some of URI-modifying functions, such as sethost).
   t_relay_to forwards to a specific address.

   In general, if TM is used, it copies clones of received SIP
   messages in shared memory. That costs the memory and also CPU
   time (memcpys, lookups, shmem locks, etc.) Note that non-TM
   functions operate over the received message in private memory,
   that means that any core operations will have no effect on
   statefuly processed messages after creating the transactional
   state. For example, calling record_route after t_relay is
   pretty useless, as the RR is added to privately held message
   whereas its TM clone is being forwarded.

   TM is quite big and uneasy to programm--lot of mutexes, shared
   memory access, malloc & free, timers--you really need to be
   careful when you do anything. To simplify TM programming,
   there is the instrument of callbacks. The callback mechanisms
   allow programmers to register their functions to specific
   event. See t_hooks.h for a list of possible events.

   Other things programmers may want to know is UAC--it is a very
   simplictic code which allows you to generate your own
   transactions. Particularly useful for things like NOTIFYs or
   IM gateways. The UAC takes care of all the transaction
   machinery: retransmissions , FR timeouts, forking, etc. See
   t_uac prototype in uac.h for more details. Who wants to see
   the transaction result may register for a callback.
     _________________________________________________________

1.2. Dependencies

1.2.1. SER Modules

   The following modules must be loaded before this module:

     * No dependencies on other SER modules.
     _________________________________________________________

1.2.2. External Libraries or Applications

   The following libraries or applications must be installed
   before running SER with this module loaded:

     * None.
     _________________________________________________________

1.3. Exported Parameters

1.3.1. fr_timer (integer)

   Timer which hits if no final reply for a request or ACK for a
   negative INVITE reply arrives (in seconds).

   Default value is 30 seconds. 

   Example 1-1. Set fr_timer parameter
...
modparam("tm", "fr_timer", 10)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.2. fr_inv_timer (integer)

   Timer which hits if no final reply for an INVITE arrives after
   a provisional message was received (in seconds).

   Default value is 120 seconds. 

   Example 1-2. Set fr_inv_timer parameter
...
modparam("tm", "fr_inv_timer", 200)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.3. wt_timer (integer)

   Time for which a transaction stays in memory to absorb delayed
   messages after it completed; also, when this timer hits,
   retransmission of local cancels is stopped (a puristic but
   complex behviour would be not to enter wait state until local
   branches are finished by a final reply or FR timer--we
   simplified).

   Default value is 5 seconds. 

   Example 1-3. Set wt_timer parameter
...
modparam("tm", "wt_timer", 10)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.4. delete_timer (integer)

   Time after which a to-be-deleted transaction currently ref-ed
   by a process will be tried to be deleted again.

   Default value is 2 seconds. 

   Example 1-4. Set delete_timer parameter
...
modparam("tm", "delete_timer", 5)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.5. retr_timer1p1 (integer)

   Retransmission period.

   Default value is 1 second. 

   Example 1-5. Set retr_timer1p1 parameter
...
modparam("tm", "retr_timer1p1", 2)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.6. retr_timer1p2 (integer)

   Retransmission period.

   Default value is 2 * retr_timer1p1 second. 

   Example 1-6. Set retr_timer1p2 parameter
...
modparam("tm", "retr_timer1p2", 4)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.7. retr_timer1p3 (integer)

   Retransmission period.

   Default value is 4 * retr_timer1p1 second. 

   Example 1-7. Set retr_timer1p4 parameter
...
modparam("tm", "retr_timer1p3", 8)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.8. retr_timer2 (integer)

   Maximum retransmission period.

   Default value is 4 seconds. 

   Example 1-8. Set retr_timer2 parameter
...
modparam("tm", "retr_timer2", 8)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.3.9. noisy_ctimer (integer)

   If set, on FR timer INVITE transactions will be explicitly
   cancelled if possible, silently dropped otherwise. Preferably,
   it is turned off to allow very long ringing. This behaviour is
   overridden if a request is forked, or some functionality
   explicitly turned it off for a transaction (like acc does to
   avoid unaccounted transactions due to expired timer).

   Default value is 0 (false). 

   Example 1-9. Set noisy_ctimer parameter
...
modparam("tm", "noisy_ctimer", 1)
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4. Exported Functions

1.4.1. t_relay_to(ip, port)

   Relay a message statefuly to a fixed destination. This along
   with t_relay is the function most users want to use--all other
   are mostly for programming. Programmers interested in writing
   TM logic should review how t_relay is implemented in tm.c and
   how TM callbacks work.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * ip - IP address where the message should be sent.
     * port - Port number.

   Example 1-10. t_relay_to usage
...
t_relay_to("1.2.3.4", "5060");
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.2. t_relay()

   Relay a message statefuly to destination indicated in current
   URI. (If the original URI was rewritten by UsrLoc, RR,
   strip/prefix, etc., the new URI will be taken). Returns a
   negative value on failure--you may still want to send a
   negative reply upstream statelessly not to leave upstream UAC
   in lurch.

   Example 1-11. t_relay usage
...
if (!t_relay()) { sl_reply_error(); break; };
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.3. t_on_negative(reply_route)

   Sets reply routing block, to which control is passed after a
   transaction completed with a negative result but before
   sending a final reply. In the refered block, you can either
   start a new branch (good for services such as
   forward_on_no_reply) or send a final reply on your own (good
   for example for message silo, which received a negative reply
   from upstream and wants to tell upstream "202 I will take care
   of it"). Note that the set of command which are useable within
   reply_routes is strictly limited to rewriting URI, initiating
   new branches, logging, and sending stateful replies (t_reply).
   Any other commands may result in unpredictable behaviour and
   possible server failure. Note that whenever reply_route is
   entered, uri is reset to value which it had on relaying. If it
   temporarily changed during a reply_route processing,
   subsequent reply_route will ignore the changed value and use
   again the original one.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * reply_route - Reply route block to be called.

   Example 1-12. t_on_negative usage
...
route {
    t_on_negative("1");
    t_relay();
}

reply_route[1] {
    revert_uri();
    setuser("voicemail");
    append_branch();
}
...

   See test/onr.cfg for a more complex example of combination of
   serial with parallel forking.
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.4. append_branch()

   Similarly to t_fork_to, it extends destination set by a new
   entry. The difference is that current URI is taken as new
   entry.

   Example 1-13. append_branch usage
...
set_user("john");
t_fork();
set_user("alice");
t_fork();
t_relay();
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.5. t_newtran()

   Creates a new transaction, returns a negative value on error.
   This is the only way a script can add a new transaction in an
   atomic way. Typically, it is used to deploy a UAS.

   Example 1-14. t_newtran usage
...
if (t_newtran()) {
    log("UAS logic");
    t_reply("999","hello");
} else sl_reply_error();
...

   See test/uas.cfg for more examples.
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.6. t_reply(code, reason_phrase)

   Sends a stateful reply after a transaction has been
   established. See t_newtran for usage.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * code - Reply code number.
     * reason_phrase - Reason string.

   Example 1-15. t_reply usage
...
t_reply("404", "Not found");
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.7. t_lookup_request()

   Checks if a transaction exists. Returns a positive value if
   so, negative otherwise. Most likely you will not want to use
   it, as a typicall application of a looku-up is to introduce a
   new transaction if none was found. However this is safely
   (atomically) done using t_newtran.

   Example 1-16. t_lookup_request usage
...
if (t_lookup_request()) {
    ...
};
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.8. t_retransmit_reply()

   Retransmits a reply sent previously by UAS transaction.

   Example 1-17. t_retransmit_reply usage
...
t_retransmit_reply();
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.9. t_release()

   Remove transaction from memory (it will be first put on a wait
   timer to absorb delayed messages).

   Example 1-18. t_release usage
...
t_release();
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.10. t_forward_nonack(ip, port)

   mainly for internal usage--forward a non-ACK request
   statefuly.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * ip - IP address where the message should be sent.
     * port - Port number.

   Example 1-19. t_forward_nonack usage
...
t_forward_nonack("1.2.3.4", "5060");
...
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.11. External Usage of TM

   There are applications which would like to generate SIP
   transactions without too big involvement in SIP stack,
   transaction management, etc. An example of such an application
   is sending instant messages from a website. To address needs
   of such apps, SER accepts requests for new transactions via
   fifo pipes too. If you want to enable this feature, start FIFO
   server with configuration option.

   fifo="/tmp/ser_fifo"

   Then, an application can easily launch a new transaction by
   writing a transaction request to this named pipe. The request
   must follow very simple format, which is
 :t_uac_from:[<file_name>]\n
 <method>\n
 <sender's uri>\n
 <dst uri>\n
 <CR_separated_headers>\n
 <body>\n
 .\n
 \n

   (Filename is to where a report will be dumped. ser assumes
   /tmp as file's directory.)

   Note the the request write must be atomic, otherwise it might
   get intermixed with writes from other writers. You can easily
   use it via Unix command-line tools, see the following example:
[jiri@bat jiri]$ cat > /tmp/ser_fifo
:t_uac_from:xxx
MESSAGE
sip:sender@iptel.org
sip:mrx@iptel.org
header:value
foo:bar
bznk:hjhjk
p_header: p_value

body body body
yet body
end of body
.

   or cat test/transaction.fifo > /tmp/ser_fifo
     _________________________________________________________

1.4.12. Known Issues

     * We don't have authentication merging on forking.
     * Local ACK/CANCELs copy'n'pastes Route and ignores deleted
       Routes.
     * 6xx should be delayed.
     * Possibly, performance could be improved by not parsing
       non-INVITEs, as they do not be replied with 100, and do
       not result in ACK/CANCELs, and other things which take
       parsing. However, we need to rethink whether we don't need
       parsed headers later for something else. Remember, when we
       now conserver a request in sh_mem, we can't apply any
       pkg_mem operations to it any more. (that might be
       redesigned too).
     * Another performance improvement may be achieved by not
       parsing CSeq in replies until reply branch matches branch
       of an INVITE/CANCEL in transaction table.
     * t_replicate should be done more cleanly--Vias, Routes,
       etc. should be removed from a message prior to replicating
       it (well, does not matter any longer so much as there is a
       new replication module).
     * SNMP support (as nobody cares about SNMP, in particular
       for TM, I will drop this item soon).
     _________________________________________________________

Chapter 2. Developer's Guide

   The module does not provide any sort of API to use in other
   SER modules.
     _________________________________________________________

2.1. Defines

     * ACK_TAG enables stricter matching of acknowledgemnts
       including to-tags. Without it, to-tags are ignored. It is
       disabled by default for two reasons:
          + It eliminates an unlikely race condition in which
            transaction's to-tag is being rewritten by a 200 OK
            whereas an ACK is being looked up by to-tag.
          + It makes UACs happy who set wrong to-tags.
       It should not make a difference, as there may be only one
       negative reply sent upstream and 200/ACKs are not matched
       as they consititute another transaction. It will make no
       difference at all when the new magic cookie matching is
       enabled anyway.
     * CANCEL_TAG similarly enables strict matching of CANCELs
       including to-tags--act of mercy to UACs, who screw up the
       to-tags (however, it still depends on how forgiving the
       downstream UAS is). Like with ACK_TAG, all this complex
       transactions matching goes with RFC3261's magic cookie
       away anyway.
     _________________________________________________________

2.2. Functions

2.2.1. register_tmcb(cb_type, cb_func)

   For programmatic use only--register a function to be called
   back on an event. See t_hooks.h for more details.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * cb_type - Callback type.
     * cb_func - Callback function.
     _________________________________________________________

2.2.2. load_tm(*import_structure)

   For programmatic use only--import exported TM functions. See
   the acc module for an example of use.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:

     * import_structure - Pointer to the import structure.
     _________________________________________________________

Chapter 3. Frequently Asked Questions

   3.1. Where can I find more about SER?
   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?
   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   3.1. Where can I find more about SER?

   Take a look at http://iptel.org/ser.

   3.2. Where can I post a question about this module?

   First at all check if your question was already answered on
   one of our mailing lists:

     * http://mail.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serusers
     * http://mail.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serdev

   E-mails regarding any stable version should be sent to
   <serusers@iptel.org> and e-mail regarding development versions
   or CVS snapshots should be send to <serdev@iptel.org>.

   If you want to keep the mail private, send it to
   <serhelp@iptel.org>.

   3.3. How can I report a bug?

   Please follow the guidelines provided at:
   http://iptel.org/ser/bugs
