Location-Based Routing (LBR) is a feature of Enterprise Voice that routes calls based on user location instead of Least Cost Routing (LCR). The advantage of LCR is related to costs because Lync will use the gateway that is closest to the called party (using the corporate wide area network, WAN, to reach to the previously mentioned gateway). This kind of solution minimizes tool charges. However, some reasons (the desire to minimize WAN utilization or local regulations) could require LBR to route the call to the gateway that is physically nearer to the Lync user. Lync 2013 CU1 is at least required to enable LBR. Lync Enterprise Voice configuration is a prerequirement for LBR. It is also required to configure at least a network region (a backbone or a hub in our network), a site (a geographical location, such as a branch office), and a subnet (based on the IP subnet). LBR is based on voice routing policies associated with network regions, so the previously mentioned configuration is mandatory.
New-CsVoiceRoutingPolicy –Identity "LBR_London" -Name "Location Based Routing London" -PstnUsages @{add="UK-London-Local", "UK-London-Mobile", "UK-London-National", "UK-London-Service", "UK-London-Premium"}
We can use the Get-CsNetworkSite
cmdlet to get the site ID for the existing sites. The base syntax of the cmdlet is Set-CsNetworkSite -Identity <site ID> -EnableLocationBasedRouting $true -VoiceRoutingPolicy <voice routing policy ID>
, in our example, Set-CsNetworkSite -Identity London -EnableLocationBasedRouting $true -VoiceRoutingPolicy Tag:LBR_London
.
Set-CsTrunkConfiguration -Identity PstnGateway:test.wonderland.lab -EnableLocationRestriction $true -NetworkSiteID London
Set-CsVoicePolicy -Identity "UK-London-National" -PreventPSTNTollBypass $true
Although the steps we have seen in this recipe are the ones suggested in TechNet, Ken Lasko suggests that the EnableLocationRestriction:$TRUE
parameter should only be used to stop inbound PSTN calls while a user is at a site where call routing restrictions apply. His suggestion is to bypass the Set-CSTrunkConfiguration -EnableLocationRestriction:$TRUE
parameter to enable location-based routing without inbound call restrictions (http://ucken.blogspot.ca/2013/06/location-based-routing-without-inbound.html).
A session of the Lync Conference 2014 is dedicated to Location Based Routing (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Lync-Conference/Lync-Conference-2014/VOICE303). It is an interesting and intensive deep dive on this topic.
An overview of Lync Enterprise Voice Core Infrastructure Updates is part of Lync 2013 Ignite that is available at http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Lync-2013-Ignite/Lync-Enterprise-Voice-Core-Infrastructure-Updates.