Responses are first processed by the transport layer and then passed
up to the transaction layer. The transaction layer performs its
processing and then passes the response up to the TU. The majority
of response processing in the TU is method specific. However, there
are some general behaviors independent of the method.
Transaction Layer Errors
In some cases, the response returned by the transaction layer will
not be a SIP message, but rather a transaction layer error. When a
timeout error is received from the transaction layer, it MUST be
treated as if a 408 (Request Timeout) status code has been received.
If a fatal transport error is reported by the transport layer
(generally, due to fatal ICMP errors in UDP or connection failures in
TCP), the condition MUST be treated as a 503 (Service Unavailable)
status code.
Unrecognized Responses
A UAC MUST treat any final response it does not recognize as being
equivalent to the x00 response code of that class, and MUST be able
to process the x00 response code for all classes. For example, if a
UAC receives an unrecognized response code of 431, it can safely
assume that there was something wrong with its request and treat the
response as if it had received a 400 (Bad Request) response code. A
UAC MUST treat any provisional response different than 100 that it
does not recognize as 183 (Session Progress). A UAC MUST be able to
process 100 and 183 responses.
