Call Priorities

Call priorities

Call priorities are designed to help processing important or VIP calls with special care (including "pushing' them through queues). Generally, the higher (larger) priority of a call, the faster it should be answered.

Priority support in Callflows

There is a call-priority call time variable that can be set using cf_set_variable module:

Usage example for cf_set_variable module:

 "flow": {
     "data": {
         "variable": "call_priority",
         "value": "6",
         "channel": "a"
     },
     "module": "set_variable",
     "children": {
     }
 }

The corresponding module cf_branch_variable forks a callflow to branches depending on variable value. If some key in child branch matches the value, the callflow will go that way.

As for now cf_set_variable and cf_branch_variable modules only support call_priority variable.

Usage example for cf_branch_variable module:

 "flow": {
     "data": {
         "variable": "call_priority"
     },
     "module": "branch_variable",
     "children": {
         "7": {
             "data": {
                 "id": "2e7a812a6e9405ad99ea1493123df03a",
                 "timeout": "20"
             },
             "module": "device",
             "children": {}
         },
         "_": {
             "data": {
                 "id": "4f18af4f889a368e8153232a7e891209",
                 "timeout": "20",
             },
             "module": "device",
             "children": {}
         }
     }
 }

Call priority support in ACDC

ACDC application respects call_priority value in calls and "pushes" the call through the queue until it matches queued call with higher priority (in fact, RabbitMQ queue priorities are used).

There are two ways to process a prioritized call with ACD queue:

• set the priority attribute in cf_acdc_member callflow module. The call will be put to the queue with set priority
• Use cf_set_variable module to set call_priority variable and then use cf_acdc_member. It will process the call_priority value automatically.

Some installation requirements exist for call priorities to work with ACDC:

• Re-assure twice that rabbitmq_priority_queue plugin is enabled in RabbitMQ (prior to 3.5.0). For 3.5.0 and later it is provided as part of the broker itself.
  • execute rabbitmq-plugins list and make sure the plugin is included.
  • make sure that there are no prioritized queues in the broker before the rabbitmq_priority_queue plugin is enabled. .
  • shutdown the broker
  • execute rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_priority_queue
  • start the broker
• New ACD queues now may contain max_priority so they will support given number of priorities!

For example:

{
    "data": {
        "max_priority": 10,
        "name": "10_priority_queue"
    }
}

Configuration example for broker with enabled rabbitmq_priority_queue:

[root@... ~]### cat /etc/kazoo/rabbitmq/enabled_plugins
[rabbitmq_management,rabbitmq_priority_queue].

WARNING

The following things are really DANGEROUS and should be avoided:

• Creating prioritized queues before priorities are enabled in the broker.
• Change number of priorities in existing queue
• Disable priorities in the broker while prioritized queues exist

If you need to do something from the list above please refer to the manual.