UCM - Time Of Day Routing

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Hi! I have TOD routing setup and working as expected through Unity Connection. However, there is a network issue that has broken this routing and I need to set the TOD on UCM exclusively. Here is the Call flow for open: PSTN ----> CUBE -----> UCM ----XLATE (Phone Partition/ Phone CSS) -----> Hunt Pilot / Hunt List / Line group ----> NoAnswer Forward to another number. Here is the Call flow for closed: PSTN -----> CUBE -----> UCM ----XLATE (Phone Partition/ Phone CSS) -----> Hunt Pilot - Forward All to another number. I also need to add holiday schedules I created two partitions: PT_OPEN and PT_CLOSED. I created two time schedules and added time periods into those schedules. I added the schedules into the two above partitions. (PT_OPEN and PT_CLOSED.) with correct time zone I created two hunt pilots with the same number that is being xlate from the above. The two hunt pilots - 1 HP has PT_OPEN and 1 HP has PT_CLOSED. The CSS in the xlate has access to both PT_OPEN and PT_CLOSED. For some reason, not working. Anyone have any suggestions/ solutions to help me?

[Elliot Dierksen]

First, you didn't describe the specific problem you are experiencing. What is broken and under what conditions/times? Second, I am having a hard time understanding how a "network issue" would affect the ToD routing. Would you please clarify what you mean by that?

At a higher level, I want to make a comment about ToD routing. This is my opinion, but that is formed from a lot of experience as a partner engineer. Decide with your users if the "default" condition is open or close, and have routing that handles the default condition that is not qualified by time. I have seen entirely too many occasions where a hole was inadvertently left in a time schedule and calls would fail then. Also remember that most precise match is the highest priority selection criteria. Partition order in the CSS is only a tie breaker when there are matches of equal precision. Misunderstandings about that have caused a lot of problems in call routing plans.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Hi Elliot - Thanks for your reply. 

The ToD routing through Unity required the conversation to go through WAN routers.  The WAN routers have a GRE tunnel which I believe is the issue where intermittent calls were failed ( I verified this through .pcap ).  Unfortunately, the network team is not convinced and I have no other solution but to create a new call flow.  

I moved the call flow to strictly UCM and it worked as expected.

But the office needs ToD routing in place and I'm having a really hard time getting it correct but I'm sure its something I'm missing or not configured correctly 

Can you help me with this?

[Elliot Dierksen]

OP sent this as a PM:

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@AndrewManiscalco8243 wrote:
The Blog is not allowing me to reply for some reason. I checked that I'm logged in but just won't let me reply. The original TOD was sent through Unity connection and working fine. When going though Unity connection - it traverses the WAN and I believe is getting lost in the WAN tunnel from Data Center to Data Center. At least using CUCM as TOD, I will avoid having to traverse the WAN. I'm still shakey on all that is needed for CUCM TOD. The default will be to open but everything I've done doesn't seem to send to close when the time schedule says to close. Any suggestions?

I find the "lost in the WAN" statement unclear and suspicious. I don't think that is the case, but you still haven't described how it fails (fast busy, rings endlessly, sent to the wrong number, etc.) and what the conditions are where it fails (certain times of day, when there are certain numbers of calls, etc). I can't make any kind of useful recommendation without more specific info.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Understood.  I really want to forget about having the network team try to fix their end and I know its their end based on the .pcaps.  

But, to answer your question - some calls will complete and others will be dead air then drop after 47 seconds. Its consistent and not during any time of day

[Elliot Dierksen]

If you look at the CM traces in the RTMT logs and some calls time out and other succeed, I don't know that there is anything you can do about. The underlying network issues (assuming that is the case) will still bite you.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Thanks Elliot.  I did mention that I moved the call flow to use just UCM and its working perfectly now. 

Please let me know if you can assist with UCM ToD? 

[Elliot Dierksen]

If it is working perfectly, what assistance is it you need? If you are asking for assistance on the network side, that is going to require a lot more information.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

I'm not asking for assistance with the network side. 

"I moved the call flow to strictly UCM and it worked as expected.

But the office needs ToD routing in place and I'm having a really hard time getting it correct but I'm sure its something I'm missing or not configured correctly"

Thanks for you help.  I don't think we are making much progress. Maybe I'm not explaining myself correctly or whatever. 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I feel like I keep asking you for details which are not clear to me, but you are not providing them. I would ask you the same question I ask of the business users when a change is requested. That is to describe what you are trying to accomplish in words. Things like this. From 8AM to 5PM I want person A & B to answer calls to number ZZZZ. If A & B are busy or don't answer it should go to destination C. After hours it should go to destination E.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Hi Elliot,

From 8AM to 1230AM (M-F) - I have a number 1234 that is a xlate pattern with a Called Party Transform Mask of 4567 which is a hunt pilot.  The hunt pilot has a hunt list with line group that has has a bunch of phones. During open times - it should follow this path and ring alll those phones in the LG - if no one answers the line, it call forward no answers to 9876 number.  This all works as I type this and should be considered the Open schedule.  

The closed schedule does not work.  The Closed schedule should be anything outside of the time frame 8AM to 1230AM (M-F), should call forward to 9876.  Also would like to work in Holiday schedule into the Closed Schedule.

Please note the numbers used above are fake numbers. 

I've included Time Period, Time schedule screenshots

[TONY SMITH]

Think of time schedules in CUCM as making their Partitions appear or disappear depending on time of day. I have some personal preferences about this, firstly I don't like to have separate open and closed schedules/partitions for the reasons Elliot set out.  I also don't like to have two identical patterns, with selection between them solely based on the order of partitions in the CSS.  So in principle for what you've outlined I would have the following ..

Translation Pattern 1234 in "Open-Partition" with the Time Schedule applied

Translation Pattern 123X in "Closed-Partition" with no time schedule, so visible all the time.

The appropriate CSS contains both "Open-Partition" and "Closed-Partition"

During the open times, the calling device will see both 1234 and 123X so will clearly chose 1234.

Outside open times, only 123X will be visible so will be the best match

When testing your configuration, remember that Dialled Number Analyser can also simulate time of day.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Thank you @TONY SMITH 

So, no time schedule for closed partition. In essence, it should always be closed unless there is a open schedule.

How would you handle holidays?

[Roger Kallberg]

My preference for this is the reverse of what @TONY SMITH wrote. Ie no time schedule for Open, so that it’s always open. Then for Holidays and Closed you do have time schedule set on the partitions, so that when these are available it would take the route of what the matched patterns state.

I also always make sure that any closed or holiday partitions are ordered before the open partition, that is ordered last in the CSS.

I’ve never had or seen issues with having the exact same match statement on the patterns if you follow this advice.

[AndrewManiscalco8243]

Thanks @Roger Kallberg 

I did as you suggested:  I did a time schedule for open that had nothing listed in there.  Then did a time schedule for closed, put the times that the office is closed and a test holiday day. 

I have a xlate pattern for the main number that has a called party transform mask set to the Hunt Pilot, so call xlate pattern should transfer to the hunt pilot number.  There are two hunt pilots, using the earlier mentioned called party transform mask : 1. with partition open ( that has time schedule with open, nothing listed in there ) 1. with partition closed ( that has time schedule with normal closed hours and 1 test holiday).  The normal CSS that I use (which is being used in the xlate pattern) I added both Hunt Pilot partitions to, at the bottom of the "selected partitions" with the closed partition being the partition on top.  

Made a test call and the calls would fail.  I added "all the time" to the open time period and it routes correctly.  I removed "all the time" from the open time period and it failed again.  

What do you think needs tweaking?