x
The Via header field indicates the transport used for the transaction
and identifies the location where the response is to be sent. A Via
header field value is added only after the transport that will be
used to reach the next hop has been selected (which may involve the
usage of the procedures in [4]).
When the UAC creates a request, it MUST insert a Via into that
request. The protocol name and protocol version in the header field
MUST be SIP and 2.0, respectively. The Via header field value MUST
contain a branch parameter. This parameter is used to identify the
transaction created by that request. This parameter is used by both
the client and the server.
The branch parameter value MUST be unique across space and time for
all requests sent by the UA. The exceptions to this rule are CANCEL
and ACK for non-2xx responses. As discussed below, a CANCEL request
will have the same value of the branch parameter as the request it
cancels. As discussed in Section 17.1.1.3, an ACK for a non-2xx
response will also have the same branch ID as the INVITE whose
response it acknowledges.
The uniqueness property of the branch ID parameter, to facilitate
its use as a transaction ID, was not part of RFC 2543.
The branch ID inserted by an element compliant with this
specification MUST always begin with the characters "z9hG4bK". These
7 characters are used as a magic cookie (7 is deemed sufficient to
ensure that an older RFC 2543 implementation would not pick such a
value).
