Apologies if this has been discussed in the past.

Consider a domain proxy that is configured to parallel fork an INVITE
request to two targets. As a result it would forward the INVITE request
twice, and as far as I can see the two forwarded requests would in
general differ only in the following respects:
- different Request-URIs (the respective contact URIs);
- different top Via header field entries (different branch parameters);
- if applicable, different History-Info header field values.
 
Supposing the two new targets are both reachable via the same edge
"proxy", which is actually implemented as a B2BUA (e.g., an SBC). The
edge B2BUA would receive one request and shortly afterwards would
receive the other request. The similarity and differences between the
two requests are such that, in accordance with RFC 3261, the second
request would be treated by the B2BUA (acting as a UAS) as a loop and be
rejected with 482, assuming it arrives within a given time period. For
TCP transport the second INVITE request would need to arrive before the
ACK relating to the first INVITE request, but for UDP transport the
window is extended by T4 seconds.

The text concerned in RFC 3261 is in 8.2.2.2:
"If the request has no tag in the To header field, the UAS core MUST
   check the request against ongoing transactions.  If the From tag,
   Call-ID, and CSeq exactly match those associated with an ongoing
   transaction, but the request does not match that transaction (based
   on the matching rules in Section 17.2.3), the UAS core SHOULD
   generate a 482 (Loop Detected) response and pass it to the server
   transaction."
in 17.2.3:
"The INVITE request matches a transaction if the Request-URI, To tag,
   From tag, Call-ID, CSeq, and top Via header field match those of the
   INVITE request which created the transaction.  In this case, the
   INVITE is a retransmission of the original one that created the
   transaction."
and in 17.1.2.2:
"Once the client transaction enters the "Completed" state, it MUST set
   Timer K to fire in T4 seconds for unreliable transports, and zero
   seconds for reliable transports.  The "Completed" state exists to
   buffer any additional response retransmissions that may be received
   (which is why the client transaction remains there only for
   unreliable transports).  T4 represents the amount of time the network
   will take to clear messages between client and server transactions.
   The default value of T4 is 5s."

Questions: Has this problem has been seen in practice? If so, what steps
have been taken to overcome it? If not, have I misinterpreted RFC 3261?

John
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