Location Based Routing is an impressive feature of Lync Server 2013 which distinct Lync Server 2013 from other UC solutions. LBR allows full fledge Lync 2013 Enterprise Voice deployment for those enterprises who are doing business in regulated countries such as India, UAE, Egypt etc. Lync enterprise voice deployment with LBR requires well-versed planning and designing as your one wrong step can disturb entire voice setup. Now, questions come to every Lync professional if LBR requires planning & designing; it means LBR is not enabled by default or in other ways, LBR configuration part comes later.

Question: If LBR is not enable by default and needs additional configuration, which methodology Lync Server uses by default?

Answer: LCR

Many Exchange professional who are reading this blog, can assume LCR means Local Continuous Replication which was introduced in Exchange Server 2007.

By default Lync server uses Least Cost Routing methodology. Least cost routing can reduce the call rates by minimizing toll charges and maximizing WAN uses, which can benefit to the enterprises but in another ways it is a revenue loss for PSTN service providers.

LBR Benefits:

• Comply with regulations that restricts IP-to-PSTN routing in pre-defined cases.
• Routes PSTN calls based on caller’s location to prevent toll bypass.
• Scoped to specific locations, gateways, and users based on Network configuration.
• Route call to the gateway closest to the calling party which increase QoS & QoE.
• Minimize use of WAN which result in better QoS & QoE.

LBR Capabilities:

• Route outgoing calls to a PSTN gateway local to the caller’s location.
• Prevent incoming calls if the Lync client is not in the PSTN gateway’s location.
• Route outgoing calls through international PSTN gateways when there is no local gateway.
• Ensures that conferences do not have a mix of users from different locations and PSTN dial-out.

Outbound routing:

Trunk-to-trunk routing:

Inbound routing:

There are many test cases involve in LBR implementation which need to be tested. Implementation steps and test cases is explained in the next part of this article.

Courtesy: Lync Conference 2014.