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.
- We will define Lync regions, sites, and subnets (in this order). We can use Lync Management Shell or the Lync Control Panel, as shown in the following screenshot:
- A voice routing policy must associate the network site with the appropriate PSTN usages (only UK-London-International is excluded because we are not going to use LBR with this kind of call):
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-CsNetworkSitecmdlet to get the site ID for the existing sites. The base syntax of the cmdlet isSet-CsNetworkSite -Identity <site ID> -EnableLocationBasedRouting $true -VoiceRoutingPolicy <voice routing policy ID>, in our example,Set-CsNetworkSite -Identity London -EnableLocationBasedRouting $true -VoiceRoutingPolicy Tag:LBR_London. - On the single trunk where we want to enforce routing restrictions, we have to use a cmdlet like the following one:
Set-CsTrunkConfiguration -Identity PstnGateway:test.wonderland.lab -EnableLocationRestriction $true -NetworkSiteID London
- Lync Server 2013 includes a feature called the toll bypass capability. To bypass long-distance toll charges, we can redirect voice calls to use a PSTN gateway that is closest to the location of the person being called. If we want to keep routing restrictions in place, the voice policy must prevent PSTN toll bypass. The cmdlet to use for the various policies is similar to the following one:
Set-CsVoicePolicy -Identity "UK-London-National" -PreventPSTNTollBypass $true
Note
Although the steps we have seen in this recipe are the ones suggested in TechNet, Ken Lasko suggests that the
EnableLocationRestriction:$TRUEparameter 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 theSet-CSTrunkConfiguration -EnableLocationRestriction:$TRUEparameter 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.