On Mon, 2009-03-23 at 21:32 -0400, Paul Kyzivat wrote:
I would argue that the REFER is part of the INVITE usage, because REFER
in that context is intimately related to the INVITE usage -- it is
intended to transfer the INVITE usage/dialog transferred to a different
destination.
Well, I guess there is that implied association. (Part of the "do what
*I* had in mind" approach that REFER has.) Since this was never spelled
out, it could also be simply "while this isn't part of an INVITE usage,
if there happens to be an INVITE usage, please refer that one."
I guess the question is: would it be valid to send a REFER within an
existing dialog that had no INVITE usage? If it were valid, presumably
it would have the same meaning as sending one outside a dialog, except
that the resulting subscription would share the dialog. I expect that is
a usage it would be difficult to find in the wild.
That's a nice pathological case. But within the context of the current
5 possible meanings of REFER, it seems to be most parallel to the
out-of-dialog REFER.
Ah, but now I want to reconsider. Remember that REFER can take a method
name. So, rather than referring an INVITE, I could be referring MESSAGE,
OPTIONS, BYE, or maybe (????) SUBSCRIBE. In some of those cases, the
association to the INVITE usage is probably meaningless. (Of course its
meaningful for BYE.)
A fascinating possibility! But I'm not sure that we've ever defined how
a REFER within a simple INVITE dialog, specifying a non-INVITE method
should act. So there's no analog to follow.
And it seems quite safe that if the REFER receives a 481 response, the
INVITE usage must not be functional any more, since the far end of that
usage has denied that it can act on the REFER.
IIRC, 5057 decided that each dialog usage must get its own 481 before it
goes away. I don't think there are any cases where a single 481 response
can make multiple usages go away.
So the important question is whether the REFER is part of the INVITE
usage and so its 481 takes down the INVITE usage or not. That gets
especially interesting if the dialog already had both an INVITE usage
and a SUBSCRIBE usage. Does it make sense that the refer take down the
INVITE usage and leave up the SUBSCRIBE usage?
I think we're a victim of sloppy terminology here. If I send a REFER,
and the far end responds 481, then clearly the far end knows of no
INVITE usage, or otherwise it would not have responded 481. So I should
delete my belief that there is an INVITE usage. Whether we consider the
REFER in question to be "part of" the INVITE usage or not doesn't change
anything -- the 481 is evidence that the far end has no knowledge of the
usage.
However, we do have this fine paradox: If we assume that a REFER within
an established dialog that has no INVITE usage is to be treated as an
out-of-dialog REFER, then *no* REFER will receive a 481 response!
Indeed, if I send a REFER thinking that there is an active INVITE usage,
but the far end believes the INVITE usage has ended, will cause the far
end to do something (initiate an independent dialog) that is
considerably different from what I expected (transfer the current INVITE
usage).
Dale
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