Sometimes there is a need to configure routing by volume of SMS. In other words, in such a way that some initial number of SMS goes to the first provider in the route, then the first provider should be blocked when a certain threshold in the number of SMS passed along the route is reached, and subsequent SMS should go to the second provider and so every specific period of time, for example, every hour or day. After this period of time, the statistics should be reset and the SMS should be calculated from the beginning, starting to pass to the first provider again.
Such volume routing can indeed be set up (sometimes called ladder routing, incremental volume routing, increasing volume routing and so on). For this, you can use the RuleAttCN metric which counts how many times the corresponding routing rule has been applied, and the vendor product used for routing according to that rule has been selected. For example, if the Condition of a rule specifies 'RuleAttCNT <= 100', the corresponding vendor will be added to the routing list for that message only when the number of messages previously sent by the rule does not exceed 100.
To implement the logic, you need to perform the following steps.
- Create a routing rule in the SMS/Routing/Routing rules interface and specify as the first choice the provider to which you want to send the first initial volume of SMS for a certain period, for example, the first 100 SMS per hour.
- For the first choice, specify Condition as 'RuleAttCNT <= X' where X is the initial threshold SMS volume for a certain period.
- For the second choice, specify the provider to which the next portion of traffic for this time period should be sent.
- For the second choice, select Condition as 'RuleAttCNT > X', where X is the initial threshold SMS volume for a certain period.
- If you want, you can continue the chain by adding a third choice with a third vendor and Condition = 'RuleAttCNT > Y', where Y is the second threshold value, while the Condition for the second choice should be changed to '(RuleAttCNT > X) and (RuleAttCNT <= Y)'. Once you understand the logic, you can build up the chain further if necessary or redirect the remaining messages to another routing rule with a slightly lower priority and a different vendor list.
Example №1 (first 100 SMS go via Alaris Vendor, the rest ones go via Alexander Vendor):
Example №2 (first 100 SMS go via Alaris Vendor, then the SMS from 101 to 500 go via Alexander Vendor, then the rest SMS starting from number 501 go via Diana Vendor):
As for setting the time interval for which rule statistics should be collected, there is a system setting named Rule count stats clear policy (0 - hourly, 1 - daily, 2 - weekly, 3 - monthly). This setting determines how often the system will clear statistics on metrics such as RuleAttCNT (total number of attempts per rule), RuleSucCNT (successful attempts only) and RuleDlvCNT (delivered messages only). For example, if you set this setting to '0', the metrics statistics will be reset every hour. Thus, at the beginning of the next hour the counting will start again, and even if the client has not sent more than X messages in the previous hour, the next X messages will be counted from the beginning.
The Rule count stats clear policy system setting can be found here:
Feel free to experiment and tweak this scheme to suit your needs, for example replacing static choice with dynamic choice (with a formula), or changing the RuleAttCN metric altogether to, for example, RuleSucCNT if you only want to count successful attempts (more on metrics).
To double-check the rules you have created, you can use the SMS/Routing/Simulation interface to create a simulation with the necessary parameters and check if the rule you need is chosen during the routing. You can search the simulation log (via the view log link in the Details column) by entering the ID of the rule you created into the browser's internal search. Browser searches are usually done via CTRL + F, but you may have other keyboard controls configured.
If you haven't found an answer to your question in the article above, you can always contact the support team by creating a ticket on HelpDesk. Try to describe the current situation and desired behavior in as much detail as possible, specify the corresponding rule ID and Simulation TASK ID, which will help a lot in research.
AKBSMS - Alaris Knowledge Base
Related Questions:
1) How to configure routing by volume of SMS?
2) How to use the RuleAttCN metric?
3) How to set the time interval for which rule statistics should be collected?
4) How to configure increasing volume routing so that vendors are chosen according to the number of SMS?
5) What is routing based on traffic volume?
Link to this Article: https://helpdesk.alarislabs.com/en/knowledge_base/article/272/category/134/