SIP Header Structuring for Parsing Overhead Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

The computational overhead associated with parsing Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages at network nodes is significant due to their human-readable format, particularly in high-traffic communication networks like IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), where messages often need to be parsed multiple times across various nodes, leading to resource issues.

Innovation Solution

Incorporating machine-friendly formats for SIP message headers, such as translating key fields into structured data or including pointers to relevant fields, allowing SIP nodes to easily extract required information without full parsing, thereby reducing computational overhead.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If SIP messages are used in human-readable text format, then ease of message creation and debugging is improved, but computational overhead for parsing messages at network nodes increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of message creation and debuggingVSAvoidprocessing efficiency at network nodes

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The SIP message is segmented into two distinct parts: a machine-friendly structured portion containing critical fields in a compact format, and the original human-readable text portion. This segmentation allows different parts of the message to serve different purposes - the structured part enables efficient automated processing while the text part maintains readability for debugging and creation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

A machine-friendly structured format acts as an intermediary layer between the human-readable SIP message and the processing systems. This intermediary structure contains translated or pointed-to versions of key fields, enabling fast computational access without sacrificing the original human-readable format's benefits

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If SIP messages are parsed at multiple network nodes, then message routing and handling is improved, but cumulative processing overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemessage routing capabilityVSAvoidcumulative processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The machine-friendly structured format is prepared in advance at the message source, translating or creating pointers to critical fields before the message enters the network. This preliminary structuring ensures that when messages pass through multiple network nodes, each node can quickly extract required information without performing full parsing operations, thereby reducing cumulative processing time while maintaining reliable routing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Loss of information

If full parsing of SIP messages is performed at each node, then complete message information is extracted, but processing speed decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of message informationVSAvoidmessage processing speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

Critical message fields are extracted from the full SIP message and placed into a machine-friendly structured format. This extraction creates a condensed representation containing only the essential information needed for routing and handling, allowing nodes to process messages quickly by accessing only the extracted critical data rather than parsing the entire message

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS10855585B2Session initiation protocol stack optimisation

Publication Date: 2020.12.01 TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)

AI summary

A SIP node obtains a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message comprising a SIP header. The SIP node adds a description of the SIP header into a body of the SIP message. The description comprises an offset field and a length field indicating a position and a size, respectively, of a text string in the SIP header. The SIP node transmits the SIP message with the description added via a network.