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MS Teams Advanced Monitoring: Track Direct Routing Calls

In the landscape of #microsoftteams communication technologies, Session Border Controllers (SBCs) have emerged as crucial components, enabling seamless communication between the cloud and the PSTN. With the rising adoption of Microsoft Teams as a go-to collaboration platform, the integration of SBC Direct Routing has become increasingly popular for organizations worldwide. This cutting-edge technology allows businesses to connect their on-premises telephony infrastructure directly to the Microsoft Cloud, ushering in a new era of efficient communication.


In this article, we'll show how our advancer monitoring tool may help you to tack efficiency and understand quickly the incident root causes.

Let's navigate the complexities, demystify the incidents, and unlock the full potential of SBC Direct Routing in the Microsoft Cloud environment.


What is Microsoft Teams Direct Routing?


Microsoft Teams Direct Routing is a #microsoftteams service that allows organizations to integrate their existing telephony infrastructure, such as Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems or Session Border Controllers (SBCs), with Microsoft Teams. With Direct Routing, businesses can leverage the power of Microsoft Teams to make and receive calls through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) using their own telephony infrastructure.



What are the potential issues that may arise?


Microsoft Teams Direct Routing incidents can arise from various factors, and identifying and addressing these root causes is crucial to maintaining a reliable and seamless communication experience. Some of the main causes of Microsoft Direct Routing incidents include:

  1. Configuration Errors: Incorrect or misconfigured settings within the SBC, Microsoft Phone System, or other related components can lead to call failures, call drops, or poor call quality. Common configuration errors include improper routing rules, incompatible codecs, or incorrect network settings.

  2. Network Issues: Problems with the network infrastructure can significantly impact call quality and reliability. Issues like high latency, jitter, packet loss, or insufficient bandwidth can cause voice distortion, delays, and dropped calls.

  3. SBC Software/Firmware Bugs: Like any software, SBCs may have bugs or compatibility issues that can result in unexpected behavior or outages. Staying up-to-date with the latest software/firmware releases and patches can help mitigate such incidents.

  4. Firewall and Security Settings: Incorrectly configured firewalls and security settings may block necessary ports or protocols required for Direct Routing, resulting in call failures or limited functionality.

  5. Telephony Provider Issues: Direct Routing relies on connectivity to telephony providers for external calls. If the provider experiences outages or service disruptions, it can impact call availability and quality.

  6. Capacity and Resource Limitations: Inadequate resources on the SBC or Microsoft infrastructure can lead to call congestion and call failures during peak usage periods.

  7. Authentication and Licensing Problems: Issues with user authentication or licensing for Microsoft Teams Phone System may prevent users from making calls or accessing certain features.

  8. Interoperability Challenges: Integrating Direct Routing with existing telephony infrastructure or third-party applications can introduce compatibility issues, affecting call routing and functionality.

  9. Geographical Redundancy: Lack of geographical redundancy for SBCs or Microsoft Phone System can result in service disruptions in case of data center failures or network outages in a particular region.

  10. Third-Party Application Interference: Some third-party applications or add-ons may conflict with Direct Routing, causing unexpected behavior or call issues.


How can Open Lake Teams Advanced Supervision assist in comprehending errors?


Our comprehensive toolkit offers an array of monitoring capabilities to swiftly identify, analyze, and resolve issues. For instance, we provide direct access to exhaustive call lists that highlight any problematic calls, allowing you to:

  • Gain a comprehensive overview of your direct routing calls.

  • Pinpoint the root cause behind each incident.

  • Observe the overall trend of incidents, enabling you to gauge whether the frequency has increased or decreased over time.

With these valuable insights at your disposal, you can effectively manage and enhance your direct routing system, ensuring seamless and uninterrupted communication.


In this brief example, you can access a comprehensive list of all outgoing calls encountering problems, complete with pertinent details such as end-user information, call success indicators, and the specific root cause of each issue. This direct insight enables you to promptly identify the affected parties and the underlying reasons behind the call-related challenges.


Open Lake Teams Advanced Supervision can present you with a detailed list of recommended actions to be taken.


While having a list of calls with issues is valuable, knowing what actions to take is crucial. Our tool effectively addresses this concern by providing a comprehensive list of recommended actions to rectify these issues.



In this short example, you gain access to a comprehensive list of corrective actions to address these errors. Our engine analyzes the root cause indicators and generates appropriate actions based on the call parameters. Here are some examples of the actions to be taken:


About dialing errors:

Suggested actions: The dialed number is rejected by the SBC. Review the tenant's calling plan to match the SBC calling plan.

About SBC not able to route a calls:

Suggested actions: Check the logs on the SBC to investigate why it returns the "503" SIP response. Make sure that the SBC is correctly licensed to handle the number of concurrent sessions. Determine whether the "503" error is related to a specific destination country/region or calling corridor.

About SBC not able to route a calls for a specific call number:

Suggested actions: Review the tenant's call records that include CallEndSubReason = 560408. Look for trends in the called numbers, or a distribution of the failures by destination country/region. Patterns can be identified that would suggest a problem that affects a downstream component.

About SBC not reachable:

Suggested actions: Investigate why the SBC didn't send a response to the invitation within the configured time-out value, as defined by FailoverTimeSeconds. The default value is 10 seconds. This error usually occurs in regions that have long PSTN setup times. Consider changing the failover timer to 20 seconds in these regions or on all Direct Routing trunks.

Moreover, our tool offers numerous other effective actions to efficiently resolve your direct routing problems.

Furthermore, we provide a clear and insightful overview of the incident trends, enabling you to easily determine if these issues are recurring or happening again.



In conclusion, our advanced Open Lake Teams Supervision tool is designed to be your ultimate solution for tackling direct routing issues effectively. With a comprehensive list of recommended actions tailored to the root cause indicators of each problem, you can swiftly and efficiently resolve any communication challenges that arise.


Additionally, we empower you with valuable insights into incident trends, providing a clear understanding of your direct routing performance and whether issues are recurring. Our goal is to enable you to maintain seamless communication and maximize the potential of your Microsoft Teams Direct Routing environment.


We invite you to test our product and experience firsthand how it can provide you with a holistic direct routing quality overview. By leveraging our cutting-edge monitoring capabilities, you can proactively address potential problems and ensure a top-notch communication experience for your organization and users. Let Open Lake Teams Supervision be your trusted partner in optimizing your direct routing infrastructure and enhancing your collaboration endeavors.


Book a demo here: https://www.open-lake.com/demo



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